A computer controlled system, method, and corresponding computer data product, for utilizing a normalized gray scale pattern find within a machine vision system. The system and method (a) correlates a reference image having a first spatial resolution having no particular degree of rotation within a first search region of interest of an acquired image to find a potential match location, (b) correlates a rotated reference image having the first spatial resolution at a particular degree of rotation within the first search region of interest to find a potential match location, (c) selects the potential match location and the particular degree of rotation corresponding to the highest correlation value, (d) increases the spatial resolution of the reference image at the particular degree of rotation to generate a new reference image and correlating the new reference image within a second search region of interest centered at the selected potential match location, (e) selects an updated potential match location corresponding to a location having the highest correlation value that is completely within the search region of interest, (f) repeats steps (d) and (e) for all available resolutions for the reference image, and (g) selects a match location and orientation of a reference image within the acquired image corresponding to the location having the highest correlation value.