Computing at least one point in each connected component of a real algebraic set is a basic subroutine to decide emptiness of semi-algbraic sets, which is a fundamental algorithmic problem in effective real algebraic geometry. In this article, we propose a new algorithm for this task, which avoids a hypothesis of properness required in many of the previous methods. We show how studying the set of non-properness of a linear projection enables to detect connected components of a real algebraic set without critical points. Our algorithm is based on this result and its practical counterpoint, using the triangular representation of algebraic varieties. Our experiments show its efficiency on a family of examples.