Digital video optical inspection apparatus and method for vertically sectioning an object's surface

Abstract

A method for generating a vertical section of an object surface under inspection by a digital optical-video inspection system movable along a vertical Z axis, comprising obtaining a video image of the object surface; overlaying over the video image on the object surface a sectioning band along a section vector to make a vertical section of the object, the band comprising a number of regions of pixels, the center of each region being a sampling point along the section vector; generating a series of video images of the object surface at several Z axis positions; computing a focus quality measurement Q(n) for each region at each Z axis position Z(n); computing a best focus quality measurement the series of Q(n); and generating a vertical cross-section of the object surface from a set of points x,y,z obtained at each best focus location.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.