1. An apparatus for computing, comprising: one or more computing processors; physical memory coupled with the one or more processors; a facial recognition module to be loaded into the physical memory and executed by the one or more processors, to: receive a reference facial feature vector associated with a reference image having a face corresponding to an identifier of a person, wherein the reference facial feature vector includes directional matching patterns of each portions of a grid of a rectangle that encloses a face in the reference image; receive a test facial feature vector associated with an operational image, wherein the test facial feature vector includes directional matching patterns of each portions of a grid of a rectangle that encloses a face in the operational image; analyze the reference facial feature vector against the test facial feature vector of the operational image to determine a level of similarity between the directional matching patterns represented by the reference facial feature vector and the directional matching patterns represented by the test facial feature vector, the analysis further including to: compare each portion of the operational image grid with a corresponding portion of the reference facial feature vector; identify one or more portions of the operational image grid that have directional matching patterns similar to the corresponding portion of the reference facial feature vector; generate a directional histogram for each identified portion of the one or more portions of the grid; and concatenate each directional histogram generated into a histogram of local matching directions for the image; and identify the face of the image as the person associated with the identifier, in response to determination that the level of similarity between the directional matching patterns represented by the reference facial feature vector and the directional matching patterns represented by the test facial feature vector is above a threshold of similarity.