As the amount of data grows and data itself becomes more heterogeneous, it becomes impossible to manage and deal with it with conventional tools. In this fast-evolving scenario, databases (DB) and DB management systems (DBMS) are among the tools that need to find different approaches to managing multimedia data, such as images and audio and video streams, as well as traditional text.
As the author of this book points out, the main issue is not the storage of such information, with all the problems associated with the different formats and the typically large amount of data involved, but retrieving the information, and providing a means for accessing it, namely querying the database in order to find what it contains. This issue is quite interesting, given that the Internet could be considered to be the world’s biggest multimedia database, accessed daily. This viewpoint will probably help the reader to get an immediate feeling for the problem’s significance, especially if he or she often searches the Web for multimedia data.
The first chapter of this book introduces the motivations and requirements for multimedia databases, as well as exposing the aspects that make such databases different from conventional ones, and explaining the several aspects of the DB design that should be taken into account when developing such a project. Chapter 2 provides some basic and technical information on multimedia data, outlining its main features. Chapter 3 explores the human sensory system, in order to draw a link between the data to be stored and manipulated, and how the brain processes such information. This foundation is useful in understanding and following why metadata is necessary, and how to create it. Metadata is discussed in detail in chapter 7.
Chapter 4 presents an introduction to the structured query language (SQL), highlighting the aspects related to the management of multimedia data (support for specific data types, as well as the standard ones). SQL3:1999 is the standard considered. This standard provides the new feature of allowing users to define their own data types, as well as extending the relational concepts to include “object” capabilities. Chapter 5 explains how to retrieve the different kinds of data stored in the database, focusing on the three main types: text (content-based); image; and video. Chapters 6 and 7 demonstrate, respectively, how to design a multimedia database, and how to access it, representing, in my opinion, the most interesting part of the book. Once the problem is known, these chapters allow the reader to take the first steps toward the identification of a possible solution, namely, an efficient database model and design.
Performance and efficiency, together with possible DB architectures, are analyzed in chapter 8. Chapter 9 addresses the Internet as a model for a big multimedia database, as stated above. The several issues discussed in the book are now taken into consideration with respect to this case study. The last three chapters, 10, 11, and 12, present case studies for the different multimedia types: text databases with content-dependent metadata, image databases, and video databases (including speech).
Examples and exercises are proposed in all chapters, together with their solutions when necessary, and are also available on the included CD. Exercises can be useful if the book is to be used for class material, otherwise they add little to the presentation, especially in a book that does not seem to be particularly dedicated to students. The concluding section of each chapter, “Recommended Reading,” provides an interesting starting point for the eager reader to gather other information.
This book is an interesting excursion into the world of multimedia data and its management, aspects that are becoming more and more significant as new technology and new services evolve.
