1. A computer implemented method for generating a non-transient record embodying measures of an adaptive set of feature locations characterizing a face of a person, the method comprising: a. receiving a video sequence that constitutes a physical record of the face of a specified individual person; b. applying a feature locator update model to the video sequence, the feature locator update model derived by steps of: i. defining a set of training data consisting of training images with associated facial feature locations; ii. generating a set of facial feature displacements for each training image with associated image sample vectors; and iii. training a regularized linear regression which maps from image sample vectors to displacement vectors, wherein the regularized linear regression is characterized by regularization that includes a spatial smoothness term within the shape-free sample space; c. extracting a plurality of locations corresponding to the adaptive set of feature locations; d. based on the feature locator update model, characterizing the locations of features of the face of the specified individual person; and e. storing the locations of features to the non-transient record.