Abstract: A vision inspection system operable with foreground illumination provides user identification of selected regions of a known object for later comparison to an unknown object. A gray scale pixel array of each selected region is processed for edges and this processed data array is stored as a template for each region. Gray scale illumination data from larger corresponding areas of the unknown object are processed for edges to form gradient maps. The first template is iteratively compared to the first gradient map. A correlation value greater than a threshold value causes the system to examine the second and possibly third gradient maps on the unknown object. Distance and angular relationships of the regions are used to both identify and orient the object under test. Once the unknown object is identified and its orientation determined, various visual attributes and measurements of the object can be determined through use of visual tools.