An activation system and method for an optical alignment system that may comprise one or more sensors selected from the group consisting of accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), and pressure sensors. The system may also comprise at least one limit switch. The sensors and switch provide signals containing information about the movement, position or orientation of the system to a controller. The controller uses the sensor and switch information to estimate the position or orientation, or both, of the system. The system activates the optical alignment light source when predetermined thresholds are exceeded. Filtering such as low-pass, high-pass, and other filtering such as Kalman filtering may be used to remove unwanted frequencies from the filter data prior to processing by the controller. The invention may comprise the activation system alone or in combination with an optical alignment system. An exemplary use is for forklift optical alignment systems.