An inspection apparatus and method are provided, wherein even when an image that cannot be processed by a current image processing algorithm is input to an image processing unit while a working line is in operation, the inspection can be continued by newly generating an image processing algorithm optimized in keeping with a particular image. The apparatus includes an erroneous recognition detector, a teacher data generator and a switching unit for switching the current image processing algorithm to a new image processing algorithm generated based on an updated teacher data group. As a result, the inspection can be continued without extremely decreasing the accuracy even when an unexpected image is input to the working line.