A NEWLY DEVELOPED GEOMETRICAL SURFACE FEATURE RECOVERY APPROACH, NAMELY SHADED IMAGE MACHINING (SIM), IS PRESENTED IN THIS STUDY. IT USES PHOTOMETRIC STEREO TECHNIQUES AND LIGHT ILLUMINATION MODELS TO RECOVER THE GRADIENT OF EACH REFLECTED POINT ON THE SURFACES FROM MULTIPLE SHADED IMAGES. LINEAR REFLECTANCE MAPS ARE THE TOOL TO ASSIST THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SURFACE PROFILE. THE COORDINATES OF THE PROFILE ARE DETERMINED BY SUCCESSIVE INTEGRATION OF THE RECOVERED SURFACE GRADIENTS. THE RESULTS OF THIS CASE STUDY DEMONSTRATED THAT THE SIM APPROACH CAN REPRODUCE SURFACES AS COMPLEX AS THE HUMAN FIGURE.