# What should you prepare before starting a camera inspection pilot? > Before starting a camera inspection pilot, confirm six things: a fixed camera above the conveyor, diffuse lighting, a few hundred eggs labelled by your team, an ordinary computer near the line, a person responsible for manual review, and success criteria written down before the start. If any of these is missing, the pilot will measure the setup rather than the system. Updated: 2026-10-09 · URL: https://vigiovo.com/en/resources/camera-pilot-readiness-checklist · Português: https://vigiovo.com/recursos/checklist-piloto-de-camera.md ## Key takeaways - A pilot needs a fixed camera, diffuse light, a few hundred labelled eggs and an ordinary computer, with no GPU. - Decide before the start who reviews the eggs without a clear decision, and which result counts as success. - A camera sees visible dirt and cracks, but not hairline cracks or the inside of the egg. - The outcome of the pilot is an accuracy report measured on your line and a configuration calibrated for it. ## What should you prepare for the camera and the setup? The camera must stay fixed above the conveyor, with its position held from the start to the end of the pilot, because any shift changes the measurements. A basic industrial camera, or even a phone, is enough to start, and high resolution is not needed. 1. Fix the camera above the conveyor, so that its position does not change between the pilot and production. 2. Confirm that the eggs appear whole in the frame, without being cut by the edges, because eggs cut by the edge are marked unverified. 3. Test whether the image shows the shell in enough detail to see dirt and visible cracks. 4. Record the camera model, the mounting height and the position, so the same setup can be repeated later. ## How do you prepare the light? The light comes before the software. Diffuse, even lighting matters more than any parameter, and strong glare is the main source of false dirty eggs. To understand how light shapes the image, read the guide on [lighting for egg inspection](https://vigiovo.com/en/resources/lighting-for-egg-inspection). 1. Choose diffuse light without strong glare on the shells, and check the image before you start. 2. Avoid direct light from windows or lamps that reflect off the shells. 3. Confirm that the light does not change between the start and the end of the shift, because a change shifts the measurements. 4. Note the type of light and the position of the lamps, so the setup can be repeated later. ## How many eggs should you label, and how? The pilot needs a few hundred eggs photographed and labelled by your team, from the same line and under the same light. Without those labels there is no way to measure accuracy, so labelling is the step that weighs most on the schedule. 1. Gather a few hundred eggs from your production, including clean, dirty, cracked and doubtful ones. 2. Label each egg with one of Vigiovo's classes: clean, dirty, cracked or unverified. 3. Set aside a test set before you start, and leave it untouched until the final calibration. 4. Store the labels and the images with their date, so the results can be compared later. The step-by-step guide on how to use these eggs to tune the limits is in [calibrating with labelled eggs](https://vigiovo.com/en/resources/calibrating-with-labelled-eggs). ## What computer and which people does the pilot need? Vigiovo runs on an ordinary computer, with no GPU, near the line. What is most often missing, though, is not the machine but people with a defined role: who reviews the eggs without a clear decision, and who approves the final configuration. 1. Install the software on an ordinary computer near the line, without a dedicated graphics card. 2. Define who reviews the eggs marked unverified, and how often that review takes place. 3. Define who labels, who calibrates and who approves the final configuration. 4. Agree where the eggs waiting for manual review are kept apart. ## Which success criteria should you set before the pilot? Success must be written down before the pilot, otherwise any result will seem acceptable. Agree with your team on the level of accuracy the line accepts, and treat the goal of zero clean eggs rejected as something to verify on your own line. 1. Write down the acceptable level of accuracy for each class, with your quality team, before you start. 2. Define how many rejected clean eggs are acceptable, remembering that the target is zero and that every rejection should be checked. 3. Decide what happens to unverified eggs and to hairline cracks, which the camera cannot see. 4. Agree on the date and format of the accuracy report, which will be the result of the pilot. ## Frequently asked questions ### Do I need an industrial camera to start? Not necessarily. A basic industrial camera, or even a phone, is enough to start, as long as it stays fixed above the conveyor and the image shows the shell in enough detail. High resolution is not needed for the pilot. ### Does the pilot replace candling? No. The camera detects visible dirt and cracks, but not hairline cracks or the inside of the egg, which need candling or acoustic testing. The pilot measures what the camera does on your line, and eggs without a clear decision go to manual review. ### How long does a pilot last? That depends on how long your team takes to label the eggs and how many calibration rounds the line needs. Define the end of the pilot by the success criteria agreed before the start, not by the calendar. ## Sources - [Como o Vigiovo classifica ovos sem IA / How Vigiovo grades eggs without AI](https://vigiovo.com/como-funciona), Vigiovo ## Read next - [Egg grading line audit checklist](https://vigiovo.com/en/resources/egg-grading-line-audit-checklist.md) (Checklist, 2026-10-09): A checklist for auditing an egg grading line, with every item tied to the RIISPOA article or MAPA answer that supports it. - [Checklist to reduce cracked eggs](https://vigiovo.com/en/resources/cracked-egg-prevention-checklist.md) (Checklist, 2026-10-09): A checklist of actions to reduce cracked eggs in handling, on the belt, in packaging and in monitoring, with the RIISPOA basis and each egg's destination. - [Dirty eggs: what counts as dirty and how to grade them](https://vigiovo.com/en/resources/dirty-egg-grading.md) (Guide, 2026-10-09): When an egg counts as dirty, whether it can be washed, where it goes under Brazilian and EU rules, and how to measure shell dirt with a camera. ## How Vigiovo helps Vigiovo grades eggs on the conveyor as clean, dirty, cracked or unverified, in real time, with deterministic computer vision: every decision comes with the measurements behind it, on an ordinary CPU. https://vigiovo.com/en/how-it-works.md 4 min read.