Inspection apparatus and inspection method

An inspection apparatus for inspecting an appearance of an object having a satin-finished area on its surface, comprising:

• a stage on which an object is placed;
• a plurality of light source parts disposed diagonally with respect to said stage and arranged circumferentially about a central axis of said stage at a predetermined angular interval so that said plurality of light source parts irradiate said object from respective directions;
• an image pickup part for acquiring 1) a first picked-up image of a predetermined object area while irradiating said object area with light from only one direction using a first lighting part being one of said plurality of light source parts and 2) a second picked-up image of said object area while irradiating said object area with light from two or more directions using a second lighting part being two or more of said plurality of light source parts;
• a defect candidate detection part for 1) detecting an area of a defect candidate in said object area as a first defect candidate area by comparing the first picked-up image acquired while irradiating said object area with the light from only one direction using said first lighting part, with a first reference image corresponding to said first picked-up image, and 2) detecting an area of a defect candidate in said object area as a second defect candidate area by comparing the second picked-up image acquired while irradiating said object area with the light from the two or more directions using said second lighting part, with a second reference image corresponding to said second picked-up image;
• and
• a defect specifying part for specifying an overlapping area as a defect area in said object area, said overlapping area being an area where said first defect candidate area and said second defect candidate area overlap each other, an area where said first defect candidate area and said second defect candidate area do not overlap each other being specified as a non-defect area.