Imaging system and method for a vehicle includes an infrared source generating an infrared beam along a particular field-of-view in the vehicle, an infrared detector responsive to infrared radiation reflected from objects in the field-of-view of the infrared beam and which generates image signals from the reflected infrared radiation, and a processor responsive to the image signals from the detector. The processor includes face recognition software that images and identifies facial features of a person to detect a person's face and compares the detected image of the person's face with stored images, and causes a vehicle operation, e.g., ignition of the vehicle, to be performed if a particular person's face is identified. The processor may perform a frame subtracting process where the images when the infrared source is on are subtracted from the images when the infrared source is off so as to eliminate background.