Patent ID: 7092860

Claim:
An programming system usable to generate instructions for controlling a corresponding machine vision inspection system, the programming system comprising: a user interface usable for programming of the corresponding machine vision inspection system, comprising: an image display portion usable to display a synthetic image representative of an image acquired by the corresponding machine vision inspection system, and user-alterable control elements usable to determine instructions usable to control the corresponding machine vision inspection system, the user-alterable control elements comprising at least one control element that affects the focus of the synthetic image representative of an image acquired by the corresponding machine vision inspection system, and an input portion for receiving CAD data representative of at least a portion of at least one object inspectable by the corresponding machine vision inspection system; a hardware component simulation system, comprising: a first portion operable to represent at least a current lens system of the corresponding machine vision inspection system, including a limited depth of field of the lens system, and a second portion operable to represent a current state of at least the relative position of the lens system and the portion of at least one object inspectable by the corresponding machine vision inspection system; a communication interface portion connected to exchange control and data signals between the user interface and the hardware component simulation system; and a portion usable to generate the instructions for controlling the corresponding machine vision inspection system; wherein the programming system is operable to: generate a current focus-dependent synthetic image of at least the portion of at least one object inspectable by the corresponding machine vision inspection system, including focus effects related to the limited depth of field of the lens system, based on at least two of a current state of the user-alterable control elements, the current lens system representation of the first portion and the current state representation of the second portion; display the current focus-dependent synthetic image in the image display portion of the user interface; and generate at least one of the instructions that is usable in an inspection program for controlling the corresponding machine vision inspection system to inspect the at least one object inspectable by the corresponding machine vision inspection system, based at least partially on the current state of the user-alterable control elements.