The invention provides a contour vector feature-based embedded real-time image matching method. The method uses the linear feature based on X and Y direction vectors, and has strong capability of resisting image distortion, noise, shading, illumination changes, polarity inversion and so on. An image pyramid search strategy is used, templates are quickly matched in a high-layer low-resolution image to be tested, and then, a target position is found out accurately by stepwise downward search, so that matching time is reduced greatly. According to the template image specific information, the best pyramid hierarchy number and the best rotation angle step size for the pyramid template matching of each layer are calculated automatically. An image pyramid highest-layer three-level screening matching strategy is provided, treatment is carried out according to the specific content of the image to be tested, and the first level of screening and the second level of screening are carried out; the non-target position is eliminated just by the addition and subtraction and the conditional statements, which is more efficient in the embedded system than using the multiplication and division; and the third level only processes fewer positions meeting the requirements of the above two levels, so that the matching speed is improved greatly. The overall method can realize the work of matching and locating the target at any angle and any coordinate.