Abstract: A method of finding a most likely match for a target facial image within a data base of stored facial images comprising determining a score for each data base image as a function of closeness of a quantization of selected facial features between each data base image and the target image and ordering the data base for sequential processing according to the potential value score in descending order, sequentially processing each data base image starting from the highest potential value score by an image comparison process to establish a correlation score for each comparison, and applying one or more decision rules to each comparison to reach a decision.