Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus, and a related method, for the automatic detection of defects in manufactured parts, such as turbine blades and the like. The apparatus includes a video camera, a thresholding module to provide a binary image of a frame of video data, a region growing module to define anomalous regions by associating contiguous picture elements indicative of surface anomalies on the part, and defect analysis modules for determining if a rejectable defect exists, based on a comparison between statistics with respect to the anomalous regions and predetermined rejection criteria. Rejection may be based on region size, region shape, or region position and orientation with respect to neighboring regions. Thus, a region may be rejected if it is nearly collinear with another region, even though neither region may itself be characterized as a rejectable region.