A system (44)for interfacing a surgical laserwith an eye includes a firstsensing element (72, 74) tocouple to an output surface ofthe laser, an interface lens (52)having second sensing element{71, 76) coupled to a firstsurface of the interface lens,and a detector (24) coupledto the first sensing element. Asecond surface of the interfacelens contacts the eye. Thedetector determines when thefirst sensing element contactsthe second sensing element. Amethod for aligning the laserwith the eye includes couplingthe laser to the patient interface,sensing an electrical changeindicating a position of theoutput surface with the interfacelens, comparing the electricalchange with a predeterminedvalue to produce a correction,and re-positioning the laser withthe correction.
