A fiberscope is a flexible fiber optic bundle with an eyepiece at one end, and a lens at the other. It is used for inspection work, often to examine small components in tightly packed equipment, when the inspector cannot easily access the part requiring inspection.

The lens is often a wide-angle lens, and the eyepiece is occasionally instead connected to a camera. Some fiberscopes use an additional fiber to carry light from an external source to illuminate the material being inspected, for clearer viewing.

All fiberscopes introduce a certain amount of image distortion; much of this is similar to the distortion of modern night vision

Night vision

Night vision is the ability to see in low light conditions. Whether by biological or technological means, night vision is made possible by a combination of two approaches: sufficient spectral range, and sufficient intensity range...

 equipment.

Quartz fiberscopes can reach lengths of up to about 90 m (300 ft)

Fiberscopes are used in medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, machining

Machining

Conventional machining is a form of subtractive manufacturing, in which a collection of material-working processes utilizing power-driven machine tools, such as saws, lathes, milling machines, and drill presses, are used with a sharp cutting tool to physical remove material to achieve a desired...

, computer repair, espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

, locksmithing

Locksmithing

Locksmithing began as the science and art of making and defeating locks. A lock is a mechanism that secures buildings, rooms, cabinets, objects, or other storage facilities. A key is often used to open a lock...

, safecracking, and computer forensics

Computer forensics

Computer forensics is a branch of digital forensic science pertaining to legal evidence found in computers and digital storage media...

, among many other uses.

In popular media

• Perhaps one of the first exposures the public had to the fiberscope's use in counter-terrorism
  Counter-terrorism
  Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
  
   was the 1982 film Who Dares Wins
  Who Dares Wins (film)
  Who Dares Wins is a 1982 British film starring Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, Richard Widmark and Edward Woodward, directed by Ian Sharp. The title is the motto of the elite Special Air Service ....
  
  , about the SAS
  Special Air Service
  Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
  
  .
• Nicknamed the "snake cam", it is an essential tool in the Tom Clancy
  Tom Clancy
  Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
  
   video game Rainbow Six Vegas and the entire Splinter Cell
  Splinter Cell
  Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is presented as a highly-trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon"...
  
   series.

See also

• Borescope
  Borescope
  A borescope is an optical device consisting of a rigid or flexible tube with an eyepiece on one end, an objective lens on the other linked together by a relay optical system in between. The optical system is usually surrounded by optical fibers used for illumination of the remote object...
  
  
• Endoscope
• Ulexite
  Ulexite
  Ulexite , sometimes known as TV rock, is a mineral occurring in silky white rounded crystalline masses or in parallel fibers. The natural fibers of ulexite conduct light along their long axes, by internal reflection...
  
  aka "TV rock", a naturally occurring fiber bundle