Patent ID: 7676061

Claim:
A laser safety system comprising: a) camera apparatus for capturing an image of a pattern overlaid on a target area of a laser system for determining proper adjustment of said laser system on said target area prior to operating a laser beam source of said laser system, wherein said pattern on said target area is viewed by the camera through a laser beam path including a laser focusing lens; b) controller apparatus for receiving image data from said camera apparatus corresponding to said image of said pattern on said target area, and for analyzing image data for conformance to a requirement, and if said image data of said pattern on said target area does not conform to said requirement, said controller takes a safety action, wherein said requirement is said image data of said pattern on said target area to match within a specified error with image data corresponding to an image of said pattern on said target area captured by said camera through said laser beam path when said system is in a known acceptable operating condition.