In order to take full advantage of a sophisticated, multi-faceted inspection software development package, and therefore develop an optimum algorithm, there are certain requirements that must be met by developers themselves. "There is no software substitute for in-depth knowledge of the system or problem," says Irene Leszkowicz, Interactive Software Leader for Matrox Imaging in Montreal, Quebec. "Developers usually have a clear understanding of what they're testing for and what they want to achieve."

With a wide range of applications requiring detailed inspection in complex fields of view, developers have an equally wide range of requirements when it comes to a sophisticated inspection software development package. However, according to Leszkowicz, the ability to both customize and extend the software is critical.

When interactive inspection software is used to develop algorithms for on-line manufacturing applications, there are usually four major phases developers go through to achieve the solution/s they require in the shortest time possible.

During this initial phase, the developer interactively explores the approaches to his eventual solution. He wants to be able to do so in an easy and familiar environment. A broad selection of sample solutions provided with the software can serve as the basis for further development. Once he has a couple of ideas, he will then want to compare them interactively while he works. With packages like Matrox Inspector 3.0, this can be done by recording his actions throughout the exploration process, viewing live previews, graphs, and using other tools. He can drop his test images into a collection or database and begin testing. Saving time at this first stage is critical.

Once the developer has found a solid algorithm, it's time to apply it to a test set using methods that again save time. At this stage, he wants to test it on a small-scale trial basis and ideally, he wants to automate that validation. This is where a powerful and familiar scripting environment, such as Visual Basic, comes into effect. As well as playing back what he's recorded in the earlier phase, custom scripts can improve the validation process. Custom dialog boxes created graphically provide a simple way of specifying new values for algorithm parameters. More importantly, the execution of test scripts should accommodate graphical user input at key decision points during development. With Matrox Inspector, positions, regions and processing parameters can be set at any point. This is particularly useful when an image in the test set produces an unexpected result and the user's experience is needed to continue the inspection training. Now, the developer has to start keeping statistics because of the many results he is beginning to see - therefore, he starts to export his results and log them.

Once the algorithm is fine-tuned, it's time to apply that solution to the developer's application by creating code based on an imaging library. Using his prototype, the developer will replicate it using the library in order to maximize the algorithm's speed.