Patent ID: 7729511

Claim:
A method for safeguarding a defined hazardous area of an automatically operating machine against intrusion of foreign objects, comprising the steps of: providing a first, a second and a third image recording units which are arranged offset from one another, simultaneously recording a first image of the hazardous area by means of the first image recording unit, a second image of the hazardous area by means of the second image recording unit, and a third image of the hazardous area by means of the third image recording unit, forming two different image pairs by combining the first and the second image and by combining the second and the third image, carrying out a first and a second scene analysis on each of the two image pairs in order to detect the foreign objects in the hazardous area, wherein the first and second scene analyses are carried out using at least two algorithmically different methods, and wherein the machine is brought into a safe state when at least one of the scene analysis methods detects the foreign object.