ENHANCED EDGE DETECTION TOOL FOR EDGES OF IRREGULAR SURFACES

A method is provided for enhancing edge detection for edges of irregular surfaces in a machine vision inspection system. The inspection system comprises an edge feature video tool configured to determine profile data for an edge feature based on a plurality of differently focused images. An edge-referenced alignment compensation is provided related to substantially minimizing a respective offset amount of the edge feature at respective locations along a directional filtering direction used for directionally filtering the plurality of differently focused images prior to determining the profile data for the edge feature. In some embodiments, the plurality of differently focused images may be directionally filtered using a directional filtering sub region (DFS) defined relative to a point corresponding to a PFF basis pixel location in each of the plurality of images, each DFS having a relatively longer dimension along the directional filtering direction.