Multimedia Database

Multimedia Database:--


A multimedia database is characterized by storage, access and management of multimedia data (image, audio, video, hypertext etc). It can be differentiated from the conventional database system by its objectives when handling multimedia data:

Corresponding Storage Media
Multimedia data must be stored and managed according to the specific characteristics of the available storage media. Here, the storage media can be both computer integrated components and external devices.

Descriptive Search Methods
During a search in a database, an entry, given in the form of text or a graphical image, is found using different queries and the corresponding search methods. A query of multimedia data should be based on a descriptive, content-oriented search.

Device-independent Interface
The interface to a database application should be device-independent.

Format-independent Interface
Database queries should be independent from the underlying media format, meaning that the interfaces should be format-independent. MDBMS device-independence and format-independence allow for new storage technologies to be used without changing the current multimedia database applications.
View-specific and Simultaneous Data Access
The same multimedia data can be accessed (even simultaneously) through different queries by several applications. Hence, consistent access to shared data can be implemented.

Management of Large Amount of Data
The MDBMS must be capable of handling and managing large amounts of data and satisfying queries for individual relations among data or attributes of relations.

Relational Consistency of Data Management
Relations among data of one or different media must stay consistent corresponding to their specification. The MDBMS manages these relations and can use them for queries and data output. For example the navigation through a document is supported by managing relations among individual parts of a document. Different forms of relations may exist such as:
The attribute relation
The component relation
The substitution relation
The synchronization relation

Real-time Data Transfer
The read and write operations of continuous data must be done in real-time. The data transfer of continuous data has a higher priority than other database management actions. Hence, the primitives of a multimedia operating system should be used to support the real-time transfer of continuous data.

Long Transactions
The performance of a transaction in a MDBMS means that transfer of a large amount of data will take a long time and must be done in a reliable fashion. For example, the retrieval of a movie.