According to the upcoming international photobiological safety standard for image projectors IEC 62471-5, the risk group of the projector is to be determined at a distance of 1 meter from the projector closest point of human access.
This document discusses biophysical data for Risk Group 2 (RG2) projectors which support the reference distance of 1 meter and in addition a risk analysis for exposure distances closer than 1 meter is provided. The analysis is based on the two main relevant parameters: the safety margin between injury threshold and emission limit, and the diameter of the pupil of the eye. The injury threshold for retinal thermal injury can be modeled well with the Seibersdorf Laboratories Injury Model and was calculated for the relevant wavelength distributions, retinal image sizes and exposure durations. The eye pupil diameter will be accounted for by data identified in the literature, considering that in order to accommodate to an apparent source at close distances, the pupil can be assumed to constrict due to the near triad of accommodation.
It is shown that the risk for retinal thermal injury from image projectors classified as RG2 under IEC 62471-5 can be considered as low to negligible.