To provide the character recognition controller which can easily and accurately recognize only a character string part in generally photographed image data.

This device is equipped with two lenses which are a movable lens A and a fixed lens B, a CCD photodetection part C which convert optical data obtained through those two lenses into an electric signal, and a motor D for zoom control which moves the movable lens A forward and backward. Therefore, when a character string is present in photographed video, the character string is zoomed up to size large enough for character recognition and after its data are taken in, the character string part can be recognized.