Surface defects detection techniques are widely used and play very important roles in many fields, such as precision optical element used in high energy laser, wafer used in semiconductor, cover glass used in mobile phone, etc. This paper introduced the research progress in surface defect detection based on vision measurement, analyzed the significant and application of detecting the surface defect by using vision measurement, summarized the main work of this technology, and analyzed the key points and challenges in the application of these techniques. At last, this paper outlines the prospect and the direction for the surface defect detection based on vision measurement.