Patent ID: 8035094

Claim:
A method for measuring physical characteristics of a component using an inspection system including a light source, a sensing device, a reflecting device, and a retention mount, at least one of which is movably associated with the inspection system, the method comprising: associating a component with the inspection system such that said component is disposed within the retention mount; operating the inspection system to cause the light source to emit a collimated light beam propagating along a source optical path; reflecting said collimated light beam via the reflecting device to cause a reflected collimated light beam to propagate along a sensor optical path such that the reflected collimated light beam is incident upon the component to produce a component silhouette which is incident upon the sensing device; generating image data responsive to said component silhouette; and processing said image data to generate resultant data responsive to at least one of a plurality of physical characteristics of the component, wherein said resultant data is responsive to at least one of a smoothing algorithm, a functional size algorithm and a centering algorithm, wherein said smoothing algorithm includes, fitting a least squares line of said component to at least a portion of said image data generated responsive to said component; determining a plurality of residual data points responsive to said least squares line; and sorting said plurality of residual data points.