Patent ID: 8823869

Claim:
A method for optically inspecting a test specimen having an at least partly reflective surface, the method comprising: providing a camera having a number of pixels; providing an illumination device having a multiplicity of spatially distributed light sources; positioning the test specimen relative to the illumination device and the camera, such that light from the light sources is reflected via the surface to the camera when the light source is switched on; generating a series of two or more mutually different illumination patterns on the surface, wherein two or more light sources are switched on in the course of generating the series, recording a series of images of the surface with respective ones of the illumination patterns, and determining properties of the test specimen in a manner dependent on the images; wherein an individual light origin region is determined on the basis of the images recorded by the camera for at least one pixel, the region representing a spatial distribution of individual light contributions generated by the light sources via the surface on the at least one pixel and wherein the properties of the test specimen are determined on the basis of the individual light origin region.