We propose and demonstrate a digital holographic technique for 3D object recognition and classification. One Fresnel digital hologram of each of the 3D objects to be classified is recorded. The electronic holograms are processed digitally to retrieve 3D object information as 2D digital complex images. We use this method to classify four physical objects in a 3D scene into two classes. Results are presented from an experiment to demonstrate the proof of the concept. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.