1. An information retrieval system comprising: a device connection configured to obtain digital data representative of a scene from a first device; and a recognition platform configured to: obtain the digital data via the device connection; determine presence of at least one recognizable symbol represented in the digital data to within a confidence level; based on the confidence level, decompose the digital data to salient parameters; identify the at least one recognizable symbol as a target based on the salient parameters; associate the symbol with target information corresponding to the target; and return the target information to a second device.