A local feature descriptor for a point in an image is generated over multiple levels of an image scale space. The image is gradually smoothened to obtain a plurality of scale spaces. A point may be identified as the point of interest within a first scale space from the plurality of scale spaces. A plurality of image derivatives is obtained for each of the plurality of scale spaces. A plurality of orientation maps is obtained (from the plurality of image derivatives) for each scale space in the plurality of scale spaces. Each of the plurality of orientation maps is then smoothened (e.g., convolved) to obtain a corresponding plurality of smoothed orientation maps. Therefore, a local feature descriptor for the point may be generated by sparsely sampling a plurality of smoothed orientation maps corresponding to two or more scale spaces from the plurality of scale spaces.