In this paper, two different methodologies respectively based on an unsupervised self-organizing (SOM) neural network and on a graph matching are shown and discussed to validate the performance of a new 3D facial feature identification and localization algorithm. Experiments are performed on a dataset of 23 3D faces acquired by a 3D laser camera at eBIS lab with pose and expression variations. In particular results referred to five nose landmarks are encouraging and reveal the validity of this approach that although low computational complexity and the small number of landmarks guarantees an average face recognition performance greater than 80%.
