Computer vision has been widely used in on-line inspection of electronic components. In this paper, we present a computer vision system using structured lighting, which provides us with an efficient solution for solder joint inspection. Our system uses a novel structured-lighting inspection technology to overcome some difficulties that traditional computer vision systems often experience, We developed a slant map surface shape estimation technique for the solder joint. From this technique, a solder joint can be determined to lie a good (concave), bad (convex), bridged solder joint, or solder joint with surplus solder, or lacking solder.