Information Capturing Camera and Developmental Issues

Hiromichi Fujisawa, Hiroshi Sako, Yoshihiro Okada, Seong-Whan Lee

Abstract: Presents a concept of an information capturing camera, which is an enhanced digital/video camera that can recognize characters in captured images and show relevant information, such as a translated version of the words in the image into another language. Also discussed are technical issues and possible approaches. Technical issues include detection of the text image regions, perspective distortion normalization, binarization of character images in unknown colors, recognition of omnifont and decorative characters, word recognition and noun compound translation. Finally, an international collaboration on the development of the required technology is proposed.