Active Appearance Models (AAMs) is an effective statistical method to build 2D model for an object

which combines shape and texture information.A novel method for building 3D face model is proposed

which makes use of the depth information and corresponding intensity information generated by correlation image sensor (CIS)

and extends 2D AAMs to 3D AAMs. The proposed improved AAMs fuse the shape

texture and depth information of face to build 3D face model. In facial recognition experiments which using 3D facial images based on CIS imaging system

the improved 3D AAMs model shows better recognition result than traditional AAMs algorithms and Eigenface.