PURPOSE: To enable the correct recognition by suppressing the evaluation quantity of the feature amount of a point group around a selected point in a feature map and emphasizing the evaluation quantity of the other partial points to control the position of a point to be next selected and storing a sequence of generated moving vectors and sequence of feature quantities of points of movement destinations.

CONSTITUTION: Feature vectors and evaluation values generated by a feature map generating part 102 are transferred to a feature map storage part 103, and their copies are stored. They are transferred to a feature point selecting part 104 to select a point having a maximum value, and coordinates and the feature vector of this point are transferred to a moving vector generating part 105. An emphasis/suppression control part 107 applies an emphasis/suppression filter and transfers the feature vector and a feature point coordinates to the moving vector generating part 105. A moving vector is generated from two feature point coordinates. The generated moving vector and the feature vector of the feature point of the destination are transferred to a moving vector feature point storage part 106 and are successively accumulated and stored as a recognition dictionary.