Image inspection apparatus and image inspection method

An image inspection apparatus comprising:

• an illuminator that irradiates an inspection object with illumination light;
• a camera that receives light that is reflected from the inspection object, which is irradiated by the illuminator, and produces a workpiece image;
• a display that displays the workpiece image, which is produced by the camera;
• an image production condition controller that selects between different image production conditions of the workpiece image production to produce a plurality of workpiece images by controlling the camera;
• an image score calculator that calculates image scores of the plurality of workpiece images, which are produced under the different image production conditions changed by the image production condition controller, as evaluation values of the plurality of workpiece images based on a plurality of feature quantities that represent features of the plurality of workpiece images;
• an image production condition specifier that receives, when two or more thumbnails corresponding to two or more of the plurality of workpiece images that have a higher image score are displayed on the display, selection of one from the two or more thumbnails to specify a set of image production conditions corresponding to the thumbnail selected;
• wherein the different image production conditions include
• a single-shot set of conditions under which a single-shot image is produced, and
• a composition series of sets of conditions under which images are captured to produce a composite image from the images captured under the sets of conditions, and
• wherein the display shows a reference information display area that indicates reference information representing whether each of the plurality of the thumbnails is corresponding to the workpiece image under the single-shot set of conditions or corresponding to the composite image in response to the displaying of the two or more thumbnails, which correspond to two or more of the plurality of workpiece images that have a higher image score as compared to other of the plurality of workpiece images.