1. Apparatus for processing 3-dimensional data of a geometric body for matching, said apparatus comprising: a geodesic converter, for receiving 3-dimensional topographical data of said geometric body as a triangulated manifold, and for converting said triangulated manifold into a series of geodesic distances between pairs of points of said manifold, and a multi-dimensional scaler, connected subsequently to said geodesic converter, for forming a low dimensional Euclidean representation of said series of geodesic distances, said low dimensional Euclidean representation providing a bending invariant representation of said geometric body suitable for matching with other geometric shapes.