Abstract: This application relates to an apparatus and method for providing patterned illumination fields for use within process control and article inspection applications. More specifically, it pertains to the use of patterned illuminators to enable visual surface inspection of polished objects such as ball bearings. The use of patterned illuminators properly disposed in relation to a polished part under inspection allows small surface imperfections such as scratches and pits to become visible against the normal surface background. The use of carefully engineered illuminators facilitates advantageous defect-site scattering from generally dark field sources. The patterned nature of the illuminators defined by this invention allows the complete surface of three-dimensional parts to be effectively highlighted using dark field illumination fields.

Abstract: The invention provides for a graphical user interface which provides for very simple and intuitive ways of changing single or multiple inspection parameters. The graphical display immediately shows what the monitoring or inspection result would have been if the effected change had been in place during the inspection of the last “N” parts. This retrospective graphical “look-back” invokes immediate re-inspection facilitating an estimation of what the future inspection or process monitoring results will be if future production looks similar to the recent past production. The re-inspection results are immediately shown with a combination of visualization for ease of understanding and settings optimization. The visualization also shows selected other associated data to each specific inspection for ease of tracking and optimizing production processes.