Described is a system for object recognition. The system generates a training image set of object images from multiple image classes. Using a training image set and annotated semantic attributes, a model is trained that maps visual features from known images to the annotated semantic attributes using joint sparse representations with respect to dictionaries of visual features and semantic attributes. The trained model is used for mapping visual features of an unseen input image to its semantic attributes. The unseen input image is classified as belonging to an image class, and a device is controlled based on the classification of the unseen input image.