This paper investigates whether surface topography information extracted fr
om intensity images using a recently reported shape-from-shading (SFS) algo
rithm can be used for the purposes of 3D object recognition. We consider ho
w curvature and shape-index information delivered by this algorithm can be
used to recognize objects based on their surface topography. We explore two
contrasting object recognition strategies. The first of these is based on
a low-level attribute summary and uses histograms of curvature and orientat
ion measurements. The second approach is based on the structural arrangemen
t of constant shape-index maximal patches and their associated region attri
butes. We show that region curvedness and a string ordering of the regions
according to size provides recognition accuracy of about 96 percent. By pol
ling various recognition schemes. including a graph matching method. we sho
w that a recognition rate of 98-99 percent is achievable.