Keep normal alignment while using shape keys?

Hi,

this is not really related to modeling but I don’t know where else to ask this question.

When you parent an empty to the surface of an object (aligned to the normals) and than deform
the surface with shape keys for example, is there a way to make the empty rotation follow the
deformation of the surface (the normal orientation)?

I don’t think this functionality is build into Blender by default, but maybe there is a plugin?

Thanks.

Have you tried parenting the empty to 3 vertices on the object instead of the whole object?