Abstract. This paper addresses the problem of recovering the generating curve of a surface of revolution from a single uncalibrated perspective view, based solely on the object’s outline and two (partly) visible crosssections. Without calibration of the camera’s internal parameters such recovery is only possible up to a particular transformation of the true shape. This is however sufficient for 3D reconstruction up to a 2 DOF transformation, for recognition of objects, and for transfer between views. We will describe the basic algorithm and show some examples.