Safety Mechanisms
The Laser Projector is inherently safe, and it has been designed to certify as an IEC Class 3R device, the same class that applies to consumer laser pointers. In the worst-case scenario (eye in front of exit aperture), assuming a 15-W power output ESLP, the power density delivered to the eye would be less than 50 mW/cm2, and approximately the same as that of the common 5 mW laser pointer directed into one's eye.
As with any laser-based projectors that sweeps a beam (or in this case a column) of light across the screen, an important safety design consideration is how to handle failures of the sweep mechanism. For example, if the motor driving the sweep mirror(s) were to suddenly stop or malfunction, there could be a hazardous situation where the beam of light remains fixed on the eye of an observer. If this were to happen, even a relatively low-power beam of laser light could damage the eye.
The ESLP has only one such motor, which turns the relatively slow-moving mirror that sweeps the column of light across the screen at 60-120 Hz. A simple fail-safe mechanism detects if this motor stops for any reason, and immediately shuts off the light output through the GLV. The natural resting position of the ribbons in the GLV (i.e., no voltage applied) corresponds to the "pixel off" state, which means that no light is allowed to continue to the exit aperture of the projector. In the case of a failure, the fail-safe mechanism simply cuts power to all the ribbons, and they return to the "off" state very quickly, in less than a microsecond. This response time is well within what would be required to prevent eye damage in a worst-case scenario, such as when a person holds their eye directly in front of the exit aperture of the projector.