A pose for an object in a scene is determined by first rendering sets of virtual images of a model of the object using a virtual camera. Each set of virtual images is for a different known pose the model, and constructing virtual depth edge map from each virtual image, which are stored in a database. A set of real images of the object at an unknown pose are acquired by a real camera, and constructing real depth edge map for each real image. The real depth edge maps are compared with the virtual depth edge maps using a cost function to determine the known pose that best matches the unknown pose, wherein the matching is based on locations and orientations of pixels in the depth edge maps.