[crote]

What an absolutely amazing idea, great work!

Your sensor data seems to have quite large "dead zones" - those should be trivially fixable by reducing the inter-sensor distance, right?

Would it be useful to sense the direction of the bend? I reckon this might be possible by dividing the tube like a Mercedes logo, and having three sets of the sensor in one outer tube.

Is there a way to sense multiple bends? With the current setup that'd result in invalid readings as you're essentially OR-ing the value. Are there any good solutions for this?

[00702]

Great ideas! Even though I haven't implemented it fully it is possible to sense multiple bends because each bend will always have the same relative attenuation (across the strands) so it would just be a matter of matching on the relative deltas from one reading to another. The catch, though, is at that at some point no light will reach the end if every joint bends a lot. There are ways to mitigate that, but my comment is too long already!

[gaudystead]

No need to cut your comments short! You clearly have a passion, and passion is the best way to get other people interested! :D

(also, nice work!)

[liamwire]

Could you increase power output through the fibre in response to a loss of signal, or one that falls below a given threshold? Using reasonable bounds to account for errors where attenuation isn’t the cause of no signal being received.