Patent ID: 6970590

Claim:
A method for locating an edge (E 1 or E 2 ) of a part (P) for acceptance testing of the part using a structured light system comprising: positioning a diffuse light source ( 12 ) in proximity of the part and illuminating the part with light radiating from the source; rotating the part relative to the light source so light therefrom reflected by the part creates an outline of the part along the edge thereof; viewing the part with an imaging means ( 16 ) to obtain an image of the edge of the part; processing the image to locate the edge of the part in three dimensional space from data produced by analyzing the image; and using the location of the edge of the part in a co-ordinate system to locate other surface features of the part and compute surface feature information for the part, wherein computing the surface feature information for the part determines acceptability of the part.