Patent ID: 8290208

Claim:
A method for providing improved eye safety while operating an image projection system, comprising: a. operating an image projection system that generates a modulated light beam which forms images on a display surface; b. monitoring an area in front of the display surface, and at least inclusive of the display surface, with an image capture device; c. analyzing images acquired by an image capture device to locate subjects that can obstruct a portion of the modulated light beam prior to the display surface, the image analysis including feature extraction analysis of the images of the subjects to identify candidate head regions therein, and the image analysis further including motion analysis to track motion of the subjects; d. determining a head blanking region and one or more associated head monitoring regions for a candidate head region associated with a subject, the head monitoring regions being determined using the motion analysis and corresponding to image areas where a head blanking region is likely to be in a subsequent time as the subject moves; e. blanking image projection to at least the head blanking region by substantially reducing the light levels of the modulated light beam provided to the head blanking region; f. prioritizing ongoing image analysis to the associated head monitoring regions to determine new head positions as the subject moves such that more computing capacity is devoted to analyzing image data in the head monitoring regions than to analyzing image data in other image areas; and g. modifying head region image blanking to track and overlap the new head positions.