Patent ID: 8310533

Claim:
A method for operating a visual inspection system having a visual inspection apparatus of the type including an elongated inspection module adapted to be articulated by an inspector, and a two dimensional image sensor generating image signals, said method comprising the step of: (a) providing an inspector guide application for running on said visual inspection apparatus that guides an inspector in completing an inspection by presenting prompts prompting said inspector to complete at least one of a plurality of stages and a plurality of steps; (b) embedding metadata in a media file collected during completion of said inspection procedure, the metadata including at least one of a stage indicator indicating a stage of an inspection and a step indicator indicating a step during the stage of the inspection; (c) examining said metadata referred to in step (b) to determine whether at least one of a stage indicated by said stage indicator and a step indicated by said step indicator is to be selectively enabled; and (d) modifying said inspector guide application responsively to said examining step (c), wherein the stage of the inspection corresponds to an area on an inspection article to be inspected, wherein the visual inspection apparatus, in guiding the inspector in completing the inspection procedure, displays a depiction of the inspection article on a display together with one or more indicators disposed on the depiction, the one or more indicators having an appearance on the display that indicates whether the area of the inspection article requires inspection, does not require inspection, or has already been inspected, and wherein modifying said inspector guide application in step (d) changes the appearance of the indicators to reflect whether the area of the inspection article requires inspection, does not require inspection, or has already been inspected based on the metadata embedded in the media file in step (b).