An imaging system (50) for providing vehicle safety features that employs face recognition software to identify and track a person. The system (50) employs infrared emitters (30) that emit an infrared signal along a predetermined field-of-view, and an infrared sensor (34), such as a CMOS sensor used as a video signal array, that receives reflected infrared illumination from objects in the field-of-view. A processor (52) including the face recognition software, is employed to detect human faces to identify and track the person. Once a face is detected, it can be compared to a data base to identify the person. Various applications for the imaging system (50) for providing vehicle safety features include identifying the driver or passenger for personalizing the vehicle's airbags, providing pre-crash collision avoidance, providing blind spot detection, providing vehicle crash recording, and providing a warning signal if the driver appears drowsy.