Notch detection methods and modules are provided for efficiently estimating a position of a wafer notch. Capturing an image of specified region(s) of the wafer, a principle angle is identified in a transformation, converted into polar coordinates, of the captured image. Then the wafer axes are recovered from the identified principle angle as the dominant orientations of geometric primitives in the captured region. The captured region may be selected to include the center of the wafer and/or certain patterns that enhance the identification and recovering of the axes. Multiple images and/or regions may be used to optimize image quality and detection efficiency.