A method and apparatus for retrieving information about an object of interest to an observer. A position sensor wearable by the observer generates position information indicating the position of the observer relative to a fixed position. A direction sensor wearable by the observer generates direction information indicating the orientation of the observer relative to a fixed orientation. An object database stores position information and descriptive information for each of one or more objects. An identification and retrieval unit uses the position and direction information to identify from the object database an object being viewed by the observer by determining whether the object is along a line of sight of the observer and retrieves information about the object from the database. The identification and retrieval unit retrieves the descriptive information stored for the object in the database for presentation to the observer via an audio or video output device. Either two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) data is stored and processed, depending on the necessity to discriminate between vertically spaced objects.