KR19990006421A - A system for processing and displaying information relating to an image captured by a camera - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for processing and displaying information related to an image captured by a camera includes a host computer system, an image capturing device, and communication means for providing a communication path between the host computer and the image capturing device. The host computer system has a display and a memory containing information about a number of identifiable objects. The image capturing device has a switch for capturing a snap-shot still image of an object and generating a signal representing an image of the object. The communication means provides a communication path between the host computer system and the image capturing device. The image capturing device successively generates a signal representing an image of the object selected by the user, and passes the signal through the communication means to the host computer system. The host computer system continuously receives and displays an image displayed in a real-time signal received in real time and, at the same time as activating the switch, takes a still image of the object selected by the switch, and the host computer displays a specific object And searches for information about the still image.

Description

A system for processing and displaying information relating to an image captured by a camera

The present invention relates generally to an image processing system, and more particularly to an image processing system that captures an image of an object, recognizes the captured image as an object, retrieves information related to the recognized object, and displays the retrieved information on a video display And a computer system having such a video capture device.

Modern society is in an environment with much information and knowledge that people will absorb, and such information can be used in many formats. For example, it can come from television programs, radio broadcasts, the Internet, and the like. Nonetheless, the broadest source of information still comes from printed media, newspapers, magazines or books. What the different newspapers or books do with other media makes it possible for them to provide the information in printed format, making it a reliable future reference. Even information obtained from the Internet is printed in hardcopy for future reference.

Students acquire knowledge by reading textbooks and other printed materials provided by the teacher. Experts read professional magazines or weekly magazines to know the trends of the times. Technicians and scientists read textbooks, technical journals, or trade magazines so that they themselves are the latest developments in their respective fields, not outdated. Salesmen and merchants read trade magazines to know the trends of their own products. The vast amount of information available in printed formats essentially imposes an important part of human daily life in reading such data. When reading a document, a person may occasionally need to look up words or phrases in a dictionary. However, when a person reads a document, the meaning of such a word can not be found in a dictionary, and the meaning of such a word is unknown. The inability to find the meaning of a word in a dictionary can make it unreadable by a person, which can interfere with the ability of the person to learn.

An electronic dictionary is a device that provides dictionary features, but allows a person to find the meaning of a word without passing through the page of the dictionary. Furthermore, with the recent technological advancement, it has become possible to manufacture an electronic dictionary having a voice attribute capable of expressing the pronunciation of a word. However, one major drawback of conventional electronic dictionaries is that the user needs to have the user press a key of a word that he or she wants to find. Recently, handwriting recognition techniques have enabled input of words through a handwriting on a particular recording pad. Such key-in or handwriting tends to be slow and prone to printing errors, which slows down the reading process. If the electronic dictionary finds an incorrect word due to a typographical error, the user may misinterpret the meaning of the sentence. This is especially true if the user does not understand that a person has made a typographical error. Thus, it is desirable that the electronic dictionary accepts input that is different from a conventional type-in or recording method.

Most of the conventional scanners scan a whole page or a line of a document. This is not suitable for use in an electronic dictionary. Since an electronic dictionary typically only provides a definition of a single word, scanning an entire page or even a line of documents may be too burdensome and uneconomical. Thus, it is desirable to have a light portable device that can capture an image of one or more words at a time.

It is further preferred that the image capture device also capture an image of an object, such as a number or other numeric image or an object such as a two- or three-dimensional object, so that the image of such an object can be stored in a document for other applications.

Therefore, an advantage of the present invention is to provide a system capable of accepting input or inquiry from a conventional keyboard or recording pad and other means.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an image capturing apparatus capable of capturing an image of a word in a print form so as to eliminate the necessity of an electronic dictionary in which a user inputs a word from a keyboard or a recording pad.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for improving the success rate of an object recognition or word recognition operation.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image capturing apparatus for capturing images of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects.

1 is a system diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention including a computer system with an image capture device.

Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a video capture device and a connection to a host computer system.

3 is a schematic diagram of a CCD basic image sensor of a preferred embodiment;

4 is a block diagram illustrating a host computer system of a preferred embodiment;

5 is a flowchart illustrating an image capturing operation performed by an image capturing apparatus for capturing an image of an object of a preferred embodiment;

6 is a flow chart illustrating a host computer system for processing captured images and displaying information related to the captured objects.

7 is a flowchart for explaining an image recognition process of the host computer system in the preferred embodiment;

8 is an example of a description of characteristic pixel selection of an object in the matching operation of the preferred embodiment;

9 is a flow chart illustrating the matching operation of the loop recognition sub-process of the preferred embodiment;

10 is a flow chart illustrating an information look-up operation;

In a particular embodiment of the invention, one or more images of one or more selected objects are captured and displayed, and the selected image is processed to identify the selected image as a specific object with code recognizable by the computer system, A system for retrieving and displaying information relating to a display device is described. Such a system includes a host computer system, a video capture device, and a communication means for providing a communication path between the host computer system and the video capture device. The host computer system has a display and a memory containing information about a number of identifiable objects. The image capturing apparatus has a switch for taking a snap-shot still image of an object and generating a signal representing an image of the object. The communication means provides a communication path between the host computer system and the image capturing device. The image capturing device successively generates a signal representing an image of an object selected by the user, and transmits the signal to the host computer system through the communication means. The host computer system successively receives and displays an image displayed in a real-time signal received in real time, simultaneously captures a still image of the selected object by activating the switch, identifies a still image as a specific object, As shown in FIG.

An advantage of the present invention is to provide an electronic dictionary that can accept a query from a conventional keyboard or recording pad and other means.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an image capture device that can capture words in print form to eliminate the need for an electronic dictionary by which a user enters words from a keyboard or recording pad.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a method for improving the success rate of a word recognition operation.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a video capturing apparatus for capturing images of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings.

Although the present invention may be embodied in many forms, the preferred details are schematically illustrated in Figures 1 through 10, and these techniques are not to be construed as limiting the invention to the described embodiments.

The present invention describes an image capture device coupled to a host computer system via a communication cable. The image capturing device captures the optical image of the object. Such objects may be words, images, and graphs in a two-dimensional format of printed materials, or may be three-dimensional objects such as clocks, dogs, and vehicles. In an electronic dictionary, an object can be a word composed of many letters. An image capturing device that separates a word into a character subpart converts an optical video signal of each character into a digital signal and transmits the digital signal to the host computer. Edit the word from the digital video signal of the character. The host computer then performs the recognition process from the word, searches for information related to the words in the database of the host computer system, and displays the information on the video monitor of the host computer system.

In Figure 1, a system diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described. The image capturing apparatus 10 is connected to the host computer 12 via a communication cable 14. [ The image capturing apparatus 10 may capture images of other types of words, numbers, or objects so as to generate a video signal, and may transmit the video signal to the host computer 12 through the communication cable 14. [ The host computer 12 then displays information related to the object on the display monitor of the host computer 12. [ In the case of an electronic dictionary, the image capture device 10 captures an image of a word, the host computer 12 finds definitions and other information related to the words, and the video display displays such definitions and information for the user . In a preferred embodiment, the host computer 12 may be a personal computer, an electronic dictionary, or a personal digital assistant.

The host computer may be a personal computer or a portable computer. A portable computer may be a personal computer, such as a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a hand-held computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personal information management (PIM) system, an electronic dictionary, or a palm- Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > a < / RTI > In such a system, an object may be a person's name, a customer or client name, or a calendar date. Information related to a person, a customer, or a client, such as a telephone number, address, date of birth, etc., can be retrieved and displayed on the video display after the person's name is captured by the video capture device. A calendar event or appointment can be retrieved by capturing a calendar date. Further, the information on the business card can be captured by the image capturing device and stored in the database. The information stored in the database can be retrieved by identifying key elements on the business card and capturing still images of the elements via the image capture device.

2 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the image capture device 10. The image capturing apparatus 10 includes a lens 16, a two-dimensional image sensor 20 for sensing a light projection of an object, an analog-to-digital (A / D) converter 22, a digital signal processor (DSP) And a device 26. [ The lens 16 is positioned next to the two-dimensional image sensor 20, which receives the optical image signal of the object sensed through the lens 16 and outputs the optical signal as an analog image signal And transmits the analog video signal to an analog-to-digital (A / D) converter 22. The A / D converter 22 generates a digital image signal from the analog image signal, and transmits the digital image signal to the digital signal processor (DSP) 24. The switch 18 is coupled to the DSP 24 and is controlled by the user at the image sensor 20 to take a snapshot image of the object captured by the image capture device 10 at that moment. DSP 24 is coupled to memory device 26 and memory device 26 includes read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). The ROM includes instructions for controlling the operation of the DSP 24. The RAM is used for the general operation of the image sensor 20 and the DSP 24. The DSP 24 is electrically coupled to the two-dimensional image sensor 20 to control the operation of the two-dimensional image sensor 20. The digital video signal is transmitted from the image capturing apparatus 10 to the host computer 12 through a communication cable and a communication interface 30 installed or embedded in the computer system 12. [

In a preferred embodiment, the image capture device 10 is capable of capturing an image from the print material 28. The lens 16 of the image capture device 10 is positioned at a distance 32 from the print material 28. [ The ideal lens should have a focus away from the lens at a distance that is approximately the distance between the print data and when the user holds the image capture device like a pen. Depending on the profile of the image capture device, the ideal lens can be selected by the profile of the device. For example, the lens may be selected to be installed at a suitable location within the computer mouse. A lens mechanism with auto focusing capability can be used for this purpose.

The print material 28 is in a document format such as the words of a document. The image capturing apparatus 10 captures the image of the word as it is. For example, in an electronic dictionary, the image capturing apparatus 10 of the preferred embodiment captures an image of a word in a single operation, such as photographing with a camera. In the prior art, an image of a word is typically scanned into a computer as part of a page or line of a document. Conventional scanners can not selectively scan one word from another word in the same line of a document. Thus, the user of the electronic dictionary can not use the scanner as an input device to retrieve the definition of the word. In addition, the PIM user can not look up schedules of a specific date by scanning the calendar date through a conventional scanner.

When the image capturing apparatus 10 senses an optical signal of an object, the optical signal is transmitted to the two-dimensional image sensor 20. In a preferred embodiment, the two-dimensional image sensor 20 includes, for example, a charge coupled device (CCD) optical image sensor module that converts an optical image signal of an object into a two-dimensional directed analog image signal. Such conversion processes are well known in the art.

In a preferred embodiment, images of objects within the scope of the lens are displayed on the video display of the host computer in real time. The user can view the image of the object captured by the image capturing device on the video display. Once a user views an object on a video display where a person wishes to acquire more information, the user can depress the switch to take a snapshot image of the displayed object. The DSP 24 detects that the switch 18 has been pressed and sends a signal to the host computer, indicating that the displayed image has been selected.

In another embodiment, the user may place the switch 18 in the on position to activate the image capture operation. By activating the image capturing operation, the image capturing device captures an image of an object within the category of the lens. A user of the image capture device can view images of the object captured by the image capture device on the video display of the host computer. The still image of the object is shot at the same time as releasing the switch.

In the preferred embodiment, the communication cable 14 may be a parallel communication cable connected to the parallel port of the host computer system. It may also be a serial communication cable 14 connected to the serial port of the host computer system 12. Moreover, communication in accordance with the universal serial bus (USB) protocol can also be used to transfer video signals from the image capture device 10 to the host computer 12 system. Communication cards and cables according to PCMCIA or PC card standards can also be used for this purpose. Optionally, an infrared or wireless communication method may also be used. An advantage of using the infrared or wireless communication method for this purpose is that the burden of the cable connecting to the host computer and the image capturing apparatus 10 is solved.

The two-dimensional image sensor 20 uses an image sensor driver built in the ROM of the memory device 26. [ In the preferred embodiment, the image sensor driver includes a sequence of instructions that control the operation of the DSP 24 in the form of a computer program. The two-dimensional image sensor 20 converts an optical image signal into an analog image signal of an object according to an instruction of an image sensor driver.

In a preferred embodiment, DSP 24 may also be a microcomputer, microcontroller, CISC processor or RISC processor. The processor type is not affected by the result of the operation of the image capturing apparatus 10. [ DSPs are known to handle large numbers. Because computational polynomials are used extensively in signal processing techniques, DSPs seem to be the best processor type to be used in such applications.

3 is a schematic diagram of a two-dimensional image sensor 20 including an image sensing circuit 34 connected to a CCD analog shift register 44 via a shift gate 42. The two- The image sensing circuit 34 includes a plurality of photo-sensing elements (known as photosites) arranged in a two-dimensional matrix format, each element comprising a photo-diode 36 and a capacitor 38 ). One end of the image sensing circuit 34 is connected to the chassis ground 40 of the image capture device 10 while the other end of the image sensing circuit 34 is coupled to one side of the shift gate 42. The other side of the shift gate 42 is coupled to the CCD analog shift register 44. By closing the shift gate 42, the reflected light of the target object changes the state of the photo-diode 36, resulting in a sequence of optical signals. The sequence of optical signals is clocked into the CCD analog shift register 44. Through the CCD analog shift register 44, an analog video signal is generated.

In operation of the image sensing circuit 34, the optical signal from the print material is detected by the photo-diode 36. [ Through the photoelectric operation, the optical image signal is converted into the signal charge stored in the capacitor 38. By electrical contact through the shift gate 42, the video signal is clocked into the shift register 44. The shift register 44 converts the optical video signal into an analog video signal.

Alternatively, the CCD analog shift register may be replaced with a CMOS-based analog shift register, and the photodiode 36 may be replaced with a photoresistor. In general, the CCD-based two-dimensional image sensor 20 becomes a CMOS-based image sensor.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating major components of the host computer 12. FIG. This includes a processing unit 46, which is typically a CISC or RISC processor. The processing unit 46 is coupled to a display monitor 48 that displays information to the user. The processing unit 46 is also connected to the bus 50. Through the bus 50 the processing unit 46 is coupled to one or more memory devices 52, one or more storage devices 54 and a plurality of communication interfaces 56, 58. The display monitor 48 may be in liquid crystal display format.

The memory device 52 includes a ROM and a RAM. The use of ROM and RAM is known in the art. Depending on the computer system type, the storage device 54 includes many storage devices such as a hard disk, CD ROM, floppy disk, flash memory, PCMCIA memory card, and the like. For example, in an electronic dictionary, a database containing definitions of words and information related thereto are stored in such a large number of storage devices. Applications for optical image recognition and matching processes are also stored within the storage device. The communication interfaces 56 and 58 may be serial or parallel communication interfaces or other communication interfaces suitable for such applications.

In Fig. 5, the image capturing operation performed by the image capturing apparatus 10 of the preferred embodiment is described. In a preferred embodiment, the user must first activate the image capture operation, which requires the user to press the switch to activate the image capture operation (step 60). The lens 16 and the image sensor 20 sense the optical signal of the object, i.e., the print material 28. The optical signal is converted into a two-dimensional analog video signal (step 62). The analog video signal is then converted to a digital video signal by an analog-to-digital converter (step 64). In the pre-process operation, the DSP removes the noise of the received digital image signal through the filtering sub-process (step 66) and generates a filtered image signal. The DSP then sends the filtered video signal to the host computer (step 68).

6 is a flow chart for describing the operation of the host computer 12. As shown in Fig. The host computer 12 first checks whether the filtered video signal has been received from the video capture device (step 70). If received, the received filter signal is stored in the buffer memory of computer system 12. The processing unit 46 of the computer system 12 then performs an optical image recognition sub-process. In the electronic dictionary, the recognition operation is a new optical character recognition sub-process (step 72) and is described in FIG. The host computer 12 then stores the recognized character or word in the second buffer of memory. The processing unit then performs a character or word matching subprocess by matching the recognized word with a word in the database (step 74). This matching sub-process of the preferred embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 10 below. After the processing unit 46 finds a matching word in the database, it retrieves information related to the word from the database (step 76). The retrieved information and the words found in the database are then displayed on the monitor or display 48 of the host computer system 12 (step 78).

As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, a person can maintain the camera comfortably at an angle to the print material 28, by performing a preferred embodiment to have a high angular tolerance. Moreover, the new camera calibration characteristic is implemented in the preferred embodiment, so that the image coordinates can be rotated, which allows the user to freely tilt the camera into the print material.

7 is a flow chart illustrating the optical character recognition subprocess of the preferred embodiment. This subprocess starts with the reception of a matrix of filtered digital image signals, which includes data points representing optical signals, which are arranged in a matrix by X and Y coordinates (step 80). Each element of the matrix represents a gray-scale value of a pixel of P _xy (x, y), where (x, y) is the position of the pixel P _{xy in} the matrix.

Next, the image data in the binary gray format is generated from the gray-scale filtered digital image signal (step 82). The basic operation of this process is to convert the video signal in gray-scale format or color scale to a binary gray format. This operation converts pixels of various shades of gray to white or black (or 0 or 1) pixels, which means that the pixel is either black dot or dotless pixel. Various algorithms can be used to determine how the gray-scale data is converted into binary data. After generating the binary data, the filtering process is performed to remove the dot noise in the image (step 84). A clear image data matrix may be obtained as a result of the filtering subprocess.

The next step is to create an image block of the object. Before creating an image block, the image of the object must first be sub-divided. In an electronic dictionary, a word-framing sub-process is performed on the image of each captured word. The word proming subprocess is performed by detecting the space before and after the word. Each character of a word is also framed by a word framing process, where each character is framed by recognizing the discontinuity of the character. This process generates a word image block or character image block from the filtered image signal through word framing or character framing process. This step generates the multiple image blocks from the image data matrix according to the point density of the multiple image blocks. In an electronic dictionary, it is necessary to separate each character in a word, which is accomplished by detecting the space between characters. The purpose of this process is to obtain characters that are easier to recognize in subsequent processes. From the character image block, the characters can be recognized through the loop recognition subprocess (step 88). Essentially, the loop recognition subprocess is performed for recognition of each character reproduced through the preceding sub-process and for placement of such characters in the correct order to reconstruct the word captured by the image capture device. Certain aspects of this step are further illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG. The previous sub-process continues until all the characters of the word have been placed in the character image block (step 90) (steps 86 and 88).

This operation of matching characters through the loop recognition sub-process is further described in FIG. 8 using the letter z as an example. The first step is to identify a number of characteristic pixels. In this example, the four characteristic pixels are identified as cp-1 92, cp-2 94, cd-3 96, and cd-4 98. Then, the relative position of each characteristic pixel with respect to the other characteristic pixels is determined. For example, cp-2 94 is on the right side of cp-1 92, cp-3 96 is below cp-1 92, and cp04 98 is on the lower right side of cp-1 92. The next step is to identify the angles formed in the characters at each characteristic pixel. For example, the angle of cp-3 96 is the angle between the line connecting cp-2 94 and cp-3 96 and the line connecting cp-3 96 and cp-4 98. In this example, the angle is approximately 60 degrees. The next step is to determine the distance between two characteristic pixels. These distances can be expressed as a ratio with respect to a single determined distance. It is desirable that this ratio supports different font sizes of the characters. After finding the relationship of the characteristic pixels, the matching processor is performed by comparing the characteristics of these characters with the characteristics of characters stored in the template library of the host system. Template libraries are another type of database.

9 is a flow chart illustrating the character loop recognition sub-process identified by step 88 of FIG. In the loop recognition subprocess of the electronic dictionary, the strokes of the captured character image are first identified (step 100). By way of example, using the letter z in Figure 8, three strokes can be identified, with the first stroke being from cp-1 92 to cp-2 94 and the second stroke being from cp-2 94 to cp-3 96 And the third stroke is from cp-3 96 to cp-4 98. The next step is to determine the relative length of each stroke (step 102). In letter z, this step determines the length of the second stroke, which is the distance between the relative lengths of the respective strokes, i.e., the relative lengths of the first strokes, i.e., the distances between cp-1 92 and cp-2 94, cp-2 94 and cp- The relative length and the relative length of the third stroke, which is the distance between cp-3 96 and cp-4 98, is determined. The next step is to determine the stroke count of the character image captured by the image capture device (step 104). In the letter z, the stroke count is three, which is identified as the first, second and third strokes as above. The next step is to determine the angle between the two connecting strokes (step 106). As described above, the angle at the characteristic pixel cp-3 is the angle between the second stroke and the third stroke. In this example, the second stroke and the third stroke are two connection strokes. Also, the first and second strokes identified above are the two connecting strokes in the letter z. The two connecting strokes, i. E. The first stroke and the second stroke, also form the angle in the characteristic pixel cp-2 determined in this step. The next step is to determine the direction of each stroke (step 108). Again using the letter z as an example, the first stroke is typically drawn from left to right, the second stroke is typically drawn from the upper right to the lower right, and the third stroke is typically drawn from left to right. Then, the feature information of the captured character image is generated from the stroke characteristics including the information determined in the step (step 112). Such feature information includes the relative length of each stroke, the stroke count of the character image, the angle formed between the two connecting strokes, and the direction of each stroke. The feature information of the captured character image is then compared with the characteristics of the characters in the template library (step 114). The template library is a database containing prototype images in a computer for each unique graphic symbol to be recognized. After comparing the characteristics of the characters in the template library with the feature information of the captured character image, it is necessary to determine if a complete match has been found (step 116). If a complete match is found, the character found as a result of the matching subprocess is used as a reference character (step 112). If no match is found, the character closest to the feature information of the character image in which the character is captured is selected as the reference character (step 114).

After all the character images of the words captured by the image capture device are identified, the next subprocess can retrieve information related to the words from the database. The sub-process for retrieving the information of the identified word is described in the flowchart shown in Fig. This word matching subprocess begins with a search of the recognized word from the memory (step 124). After retrieving the recognized word, the next step is to find the word in the database that matches the recognized word (step 126). A determination is then made as to whether the matched word is found in the database (step 128). It is necessary to provide certain information to the captured word whether or not the word can be found in the database. If a matched word is found in the database, definitions and information associated with the matched word are retrieved from the database (step 130). Also, words in the database closest to the captured word are selected, and their definitions and information are retrieved from the database (step 132). After retrieving the information from the database, the word, its definition and related information is displayed on the monitor of the host computer (step 134).

Although the present invention has been particularly described by reference to certain embodiments, it is understood that various changes and modifications are possible to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the following claims are intended to cover all such variations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

A system for capturing and displaying at least one image of one or more selected objects, processing the selected image, identifying the selected image as a specific object having code recognizable by the system, and retrieving and displaying information about the selected image , A host computer system having a display and a memory including information about a plurality of identifiable objects, An image capturing device having a switch for capturing a still image of an object and generating a signal indicating a still image of the object, Communication means for providing a communication path between the host computer system and the image capturing apparatus; And the image capturing device for continuously generating a signal representing an image of an object selected by the user and passing the signal through the communication means to the host computer, Characterized in that the host computer successively receives and displays an image and, at the same time as activating the switch, takes a snapshot image of the object selected by the switch, and the host computer identifies the still image as a specific object and searches for information thereon . The method according to claim 1, Wherein the image capturing device comprises: A lens for sensing an optical image of one or more selected objects, An image sensor operative to receive an optical image signal of an object through the lens and to generate an analog image signal of the object, An analog-to-digital converter for generating a digital image signal of an object in response to the analog image signal of the object from the image sensor, Further comprising a processor responsive to the digital video signal of an object generated by the analog-to-digital converter to transmit the digital video signal to a computer system. 3. The method of claim 2, Wherein the image sensor is a CCD-based image sensor. 3. The method of claim 2, Wherein the image sensor is a CMOS-based image sensor. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the computer system is a personal computer. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the computer system is a hand-held personal computer. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the computer system is an electronic dictionary. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the display device is a liquid crystal display. A method of capturing an image of an object, displaying the image as a specific object, identifying the object, and retrieving and displaying information about the object, Continuously capturing an image of an object to generate a signal indicative of the image of the object, Transmitting the signal to a host computer, Processing the signal to generate an image represented by the signal and displaying the image, Generating a still image simultaneously with activation of a switch controllable by a user, Identifying the still image as a specific object having a code recognizable by the computer system, Retrieving information about the specific object from the memory of the host computer; And displaying the information. An electronic dictionary system that captures and displays one or more images of one or more selected words and processes the selected images to identify the selected images as specific words with code recognizable by the electronic dictionary system, In the system, A host computer system having a display and a memory including definitions corresponding to a plurality of identifiable words, An image capturing device having a switch for activating the image capturing device to generate a signal representing an image of a word, Communication means for providing a communication path between the host computer system and the image capturing apparatus; And a video capturing device for continuously generating a signal representing an image of a word selected by a user and passing the signal through the communication means to the host computer, The host computer successively receives and displays an image and simultaneously activates the switch and captures an instant still image of the word selected by the switch, and the host computer identifies the still image as a specific word and searches for the information thereon Dictionary system.