Integrated Database Services for Multimedia Presentations
Wolfgang Klas1990, Multimedia Information Storage and Management
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Abstract
Advanced multimedia applications call for integrated database system support for the management o f m ultimedia data. Traditional database management systems do not provide appropriate concepts and services for the integrated modeling, management, and interactive presentation of multimedia data. Our approach t o wards a multimedia database management system o ers presentation independence to applications, which is in line with traditional database system services like data independence and multiuser support. This new service is realized by the integration of appropriate concepts for continuous object management, the representation and presentation of multimedia data, and the execution of interactive end-user presentations into an open objectoriented database system. The resulting multimedia database system consists of database clients for the interactive presentation of multimedia data, which c a n b e adapted to particular needs of applications, and a database server for the e cient management of and access to multimedia data. 2 Chapter 1 dependent (continuous). We follow the de nition of 27] and refer with the term multimedia application to those applications which include both timedependent and time-independent media types. When looking at the di erent t ypes of multimedia applications one can nd different c haracteristics with regard to the challenging problems. In the following we give examples of some multimedia applications with interesting properties relevant in the framework of our work. With Video-On-Demand (VOD) applications users access video information from one or more remote servers. Recent d e v elopments for VOD systems support to a high degree the time-dependent presentation of a single media type, at the same time they neglect the editing, capturing, and modeling of single media types as well as multimedia compositions. VOD applications show l o w complexity with respect to presentation functionality as only videos are retrieved from the server and continuous data are delivered uni-directionally to the clients. At the same time VOD applications need high-performance storage and networking systems due to the high data volume of time-dependent m e d i a types. Another class of applications are computer games. They are based on interactivity b e t ween the user and the computer and can show high complexity. Games can be played locally or remotely by one or more players. Interactive games use branching techniques or advanced algorithms for interactivity 2 7 ]. Games are`custom made' and lay emphasis on the idea behind the game, the behavior of the interface, stability, and robustness. Video conferencing applications focus on real-time communication aspects and live synchronization of video and audio streams. The synchronization is in exible as these applications have to reproduce the data streams at a target system di erent from the source where the streams are captured. Video conferencing is concerned only with tightly coupled continuous video and audio streams. The realization of advanced video conferencing technology is to a high degree dependent on the development o f n e t working technology. Multimedia applications such as computer-based training, learning programs, and electronic encyclopedias require complex content modeling and speci c presentation techniques reconciled with individual user needs. This also applies to home shopping, ticket reservation, and electronic product catalogues. These applications use both discrete and continuous media types. They focus on the interactive presentation of multimedia information and are reasonable only in a m ulti-user environment i n w h i c h s e v eral users have access to the multimedia
