Inspection apparatus

1. An inspection apparatus comprising:

an optical system portion on which a plurality of reflected light rays corresponding to a plurality of observation directions with respect to an optical variable image device are incident and which images the plurality of reflected light rays incident thereon;

an imaging portion that images the plurality of reflected light rays imaged by the optical system portion and thereby generates reflected light images corresponding to the plurality of respective observation directions;

an object relation determination portion that determines whether or not there is a predetermined geometric difference between objects that are contained in reflected light images imaged by the imaging portion and corresponding to different observation directions by applying a predetermined geometric transformation to at least one of a first object contained in a reflected light image corresponding to a first observation direction to obtain a first object transformation and a second object contained in a reflected light image corresponding to a second observation direction that is different from said first observation direction to determine a second object transformation, and then determines whether or not the first object and the second object coincide with each other by comparing the first and second object transformations, wherein the object relation determination portion moves at least one of the first object and the second object in a predetermined movement direction for a predetermined movement amount; and

an authenticity determination portion that determines authenticity of the optical variable image device based on a result of the determination by the object relation determination portion.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the object relation determination portion performs the determination of whether or not the first object and the second object coincide with each other after the application of the geometric transformation, using objects corresponding to a part of all of the observation directions.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the object relation determination portion moves at least one of the first object and the second object by a predetermined rotation angle as the predetermined geometric transformation.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the object relation determination portion enlarges or reduces at least one of the first object and the second object by a predetermined scaling factor as the predetermined geometric transformation.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the imaging portion is configured to generate the reflected light images based on a light-receiving signal that is obtained by a reflected light ray imaged by the optical system portion being received by a light-receiving surface of an area sensor.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the area sensor is provided such that reflected light rays corresponding to respective observation directions and imaged by the optical system portion are received by a light-receiving surface.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the imaging portion is configured such that a plurality of line sensors are provided so as to separately image the plurality of reflected light rays from an optical variable image device that is moving in a given direction relative to the imaging portion, the plurality of reflected light rays corresponding to the respective observation directions, and reflected light images corresponding to the respective observation directions are generated by joining together line-shaped line images that are obtained based on light-receiving signals that are obtained by the plurality of line sensors.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7 , further comprising a conveyance portion that conveys an optical variable image device in a given direction relative to the imaging portion.