Optical measuring device and fiber bundle association method

A fiber bundle association method executed by an optical measuring device, the optical measuring device including:

• a light source unit that emits light for measuring a living tissue;
• a measurement probe including a fiber bundle configured by bundling a plurality of optical fibers at random, the fiber bundle including an illumination fiber that propagates light from the light source unit to a distal end as illumination light and illuminates the living tissue with the illumination light, and a plurality of light-receiving fibers that receives return light of the illumination light illumined by the illumination fiber and reflected and/or scattered at the living tissue, wherein each of the plurality of optical fibers is arranged such that a position in an arrangement of the optical fibers on an end face of a proximal end portion and a position in the arrangement of the optical fibers on an end face of a distal end portion are different from each other;
• and
• a detection unit that receives the return light of the illumination light detected by the plurality of respective light-receiving fibers and performs photoelectric conversion to detect respective signal intensities, the method comprising:
• an association step for associating the respective signal intensities detected by the detection unit with distances from the illumination fiber to the respective light-receiving fibers on the end face of the distal end portion of the measurement probe, when light having an intensity gradient around the illumination fiber is projected to two or more light-receiving fibers whose distances from the illumination fiber ace different from each other on the end face of the distal end portion of the measurement probe in order to estimate characterization of the living tissue.