Object recognition is a challenging problem for artificial systems. This is especially true for objects that are placed in cluttered and uncontrolled environments. To challenge this problem, we discuss an active approach to object recognition. Instead of passively observing objects, we use a robot to actively explore the objects. This enables the system to learn objects from different viewpoints and to actively select viewpoints for optimal recognition. Active vision furthermore simplifies the segmentation of the object from its background. As the basis for object recognition we use the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). SIFT has been a successful method for image representation. However, a known drawback of SIFT is that the computational complexity of the algorithm increases with the number of keypoints. We discuss a growing-when-required (GWR) network for efficient clustering of the key- points. The results show successful learning of 3D objects in real-world environments. The active approach is successful in separating the object from its cluttered background, and the active selection of viewpoint further increases the performance. Moreover, the GWR-network strongly reduces the number of keypoints.