Abstract: The invention relates to a method for inspecting cigarette heads (25, 41, 61), where light radiates in at least two strip-like portions (26-31), which are incident from different directions, onto the end area (39, 42) of a cigarette head (25, 41, 61) and light (33) reflected from the end area (39, 42) is received by a detector (32) and evaluated. Known methods of this type have the disadvantage that they are inaccurate and do not allow exact statements to be made about the state of cigarettes. Therefore, the invention is based on the problem of improving the inspection of cigarettes. This problem is solved by virtue of the fact that, in the course of evaluation, a distance (B, C) between two lines (54, 55, 68, 69) which are produced from a signal generated by the detector (32) and correspond to the strip-shaped portions (26-31) is determined in order to establish the position of that region of the cigarette head (25, 41, 61) which is irradiated by the portions (26-31).

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for testing cigarette heads, at least one region of a cigarette head being irradiated with light, and light reflected by the cigarette head being received by a detector in such a way that irradiating and received reflected light run at an angle to one another, the irradiated region is imaged on the detector and a signal generated by the detector is evaluated. Such known methods have the disadvantage that they are inaccurate and do not permit exact statements on the state of cigarettes. The invention is therefore based on the problem of improving the testing of cigarettes. It solves this problem by virtue of the fact that, when evaluating, a possible deviation, in particular a distance, of the position of the image of the irradiated region from an expected position of an image of a corresponding region of an ideal cigarette head onto the detector is determined, the deviation being used to determine the distance of the irradiated region from a desired position of this region.