Abstract: Disclosed herein is a real-time face recognition apparatus and method. A real-time face recognition apparatus includes a face detection unit for detecting a face image by obtaining image coordinates of a face from an input image. An eye detection unit obtains image coordinates of both eyes in the face image. A facial feature extraction unit generates feature histogram data based on parallel processing from the face image. A DB unit stores predetermined comparative feature histograms. A histogram matching unit compares the histogram data generated by the facial feature extraction unit with the comparative feature histograms, and then outputting similarities of face images. The face recognition apparatus may be implemented as internal hardware in which a VGA camera and an exclusive chip interface with each other, thus remarkably reducing a system size and installation cost, and performing face recognition in real time without requiring additional equipment.