Multimedia Database Management Systems

This work presents the issues and the techniques used in building multimedia database management systems. Chapter 1 provides an overview of multimedia databases and underlines the new requirements for these applications. Chapter 2 discusses the techniques used for storing and retrieving multimedia objects. Chapter 3 presents the techniques used for generating metadata for various media objects. Chapter 4 examines the mechanisms used for storing the index information needed for accessing different media objects. Chapter 5 analyzes the approaches for modeling media objects, both their temporal and spatial characteristics. Object-oriented approach, with some additional features, has been widely used to model multimedia information. The book discusses two systems that use object-oriented models: OVID (Object Video Information Database) and Jasmine. The models for representing temporal and spatial requirements of media objects are then studied. The book also describes authoring techniques used for specifying temporal and spatial characteristics of multimedia databases. Chapter 6 explains different types of multimedia queries, the methodologies for processing them and the language features for describing them. The book can be used as a text for graduate students and researchers working in the area of multimedia databases. In addition, the book serves as reading material for computer professionals who are in (or moving to) the area of multimedia databases.