Abstract: As one of the most successful application of image analysis and understanding A Face recognition has recently gained significant attention. Basically there are two main reasons for such a trend (a) the first is wide range of commercial & law enforcement applications (b) the availability of feasible technologies. Among the diverse contents of multimedia face objects are preferably more important. For ex: a security system that is able to automatically track human objects and report their ID’s. However the 2D images of 3D face can dramatically change due to lighting and viewing variation. Face recognition in uncontrolled environment is hindered by variation in illumination, pose, expression & occlusion of faces. Many practical face recognition systems are affected by these variations. One way to increase the robustness to illumination, pose expression and occlusions is to use 3D facial images. In this paper we will be able to understand how we are developing from 2D to 3D face recognition technology with a complete overview of face recognition technology.

Keywords: Face recognition, 2D images, 3D images.