3D shape matching for retrieval and recognition

Nowadays, multimedia information, such as images and videos, are present in many aspects of our lives. Three-dimensional information is also becoming important in different applications, for instance entertainment, medicine, security, art, just to name a few. Therefore, it is necessary to study how to process 3D information in order to take advantage of the properties that it provides. This chapter gives an overview of 3D shape matching and its applications to 3D shape retrieval and 3D shape recognition. In order to present the subject, we describe in detail four approaches with a good balance of maturity and novelty across the different methods. The selected approaches are: the depth buffer descriptor, spin images, salient spectral geometric features and heat kernel signatures.