1. A method for observation of a person in an industrial environment comprising a moveable machine element, the method comprising the steps of acquiring image data of the person by means of a multicamera system, analyzing the image data in order to produce a person hypothesis representing the person, providing an articulated virtual 3D model of a human body, matching the articulated virtual 3D model of the human body to the person hypothesis in order to generate a movement behavior representation, determining an instantaneous position of the machine element, determining a hazard potential depending on the position of the machine element and the movement behavior representation, and controlling the machine element as a function of the hazard potential.