US Patent 7206443 Apparatus and methods for the inspection of objects

A method for inspecting objects comprising: creating a reference image for a representative object, the reference image comprising an at least partially vectorized first representation of boundaries representing the representative object; acquiring an image of an object under inspection comprising a second representation of boundaries representing the object under inspection; and comparing a location of at least some boundaries in the second representation of boundaries to a location of corresponding boundaries in the at least partially vectorized first representation of boundaries, thereby to identify defects.