1. An image processing device for computing an identifying descriptor of a person or object captured within an image, the device including: a pre-processing processor that: receives the image, and identifies image segments that are a part of the person or object in the image; an appearance labeled image of the person or object; appearance attributes of at least some of the image segments; representative appearance attributes from an appearance image database; an appearance labeling processor coupled to the pre-processing processor and the appearance image database, the appearance labeling processor creating the appearance labeled image by assigning appearance labels to the image segments based on the appearance attributes to form the appearance labeled image of the person or object, the appearance labels corresponding to the representative appearance attributes; a shape labeled image; shape attributes of at least some of the image segments; representative shape attributes from a shape image database; a shape labeling processor coupled to the pre-processing processor and the shape image database, the shape labeling device creating the shape labeled image by assigning shape labels to the image segments based on the shape attributes to form the shape labeled image, the shape labels corresponding to the representative shape attributes; and a descriptor determining processor coupled to the appearance labeling device and the shape labeling device, the descriptor determining device generating the identifying descriptor for the person or object based on the appearance labeled image and the shape labeled image.