Patent ID: 8625434

Claim:
An inspection system for inspecting industrial equipment articles, the inspection system comprising: a workstation computer for connecting to an Internet Protocol (IP) network; a visual inspection apparatus for connecting to the IP network, the visual inspection apparatus comprising: an elongated inspection tube; a two dimensional image sensor disposed at a distal end of the elongated inspection tube; a voice coder/decoder for converting analog voice signals into digital form and for converting digital voice signals into analog form; an acoustic input device generating analog voice signals coupled to said voice coder/decoder; an acoustic output device receiving analog voice signals coupled to said voice coder/decoder; a processor for receiving inspection data from at least one of the voice coder/decoder and the two dimensional image sensor, and for transmitting the inspection data over the IP network; and a display for displaying a graphical user interface configuration window to a user of the visual inspection apparatus, the graphical user interface configuration window including a plurality of selections presented to the user for selectably setting up an IP based voice communication connection between said visual inspection apparatus and the workstation computer, wherein one of the selections comprises a user selectable time duration for initiating the IP based voice communication connection automatically with the workstation computer if the workstation computer has previously received the inspection data collected by the visual inspection apparatus within the user selectable time duration.