A system includes a transceiver, processor, database, and memory. Instructions for executing a nearest neighbor search are recorded in memory. Receipt of a query point by the transceiver from a camera or other input device causes the processor to construct a KD-Fern having nodes as an ordered set of splitting dimensions and thresholds. All nodes at the same level of the KD-Fern have the same splitting dimension d and the same threshold τ. A binary bit is generated at each node describing a respective threshold comparison decision for that particular node. The processor associates each of a plurality of binary addresses in the binary map with a corresponding nearest neighbor index, determines the binary address of the query point, and returns, e.g., to a vehicle braking, steering, or body control module, a nearest neighbor result by extracting the nearest neighbor from the binary map.