This document summarizes a research paper on a Fourier Mellin transform based face recognition algorithm. The algorithm extracts illumination invariant features from depth maps of face images obtained through a shape from shading algorithm. These features are transformed using Fourier Mellin transform and classified using k-NN classification based on L1 norm distance. Experiments on the ORL database showed the transformed shape features are robust to illumination and pose variations, achieving better recognition performance compared to other algorithms. The document provides background on challenges in face recognition and reviews existing algorithms before describing the proposed Fourier Mellin transform based approach.