A device and method for processing an image to create appearance and shape labeled images of a person or object captured within the image. The appearance and shape labeled images are unique properties of the person or object and can be used to re-identify the person or object in subsequent images. The appearance labeled image is an aggregate of pre-stored appearance labels that are assigned to image segments of the image based on calculated appearance attributes of each image segment. The shape labeled image is an aggregate of pre-stored shape labels that are assigned to image segments of the image based on calculated shape attributes of each image segment. An identifying descriptor of the person or object can be computed based on both the appearance labeled image and the shape labeled image. The descriptor can be compared with other descriptors of later captured images to re-identify a person or object.