Multimedia Databases
The recent explosion in the use of media-rich Internet applications has resulted in an
appreciation for the value of multimedia content, and a realization of the challenges in
managing that content. Emerging Web and e-commerce applications found in diverse areas
such as retail sales, real estate, and Web publishing, need effective, efficient, and reliable
management of multimedia content.
Managing multimedia content for such applications presents unique issues. Large,
relatively unstructured media objects come in a wide variety of complex formats, and need
to be associated with the appropriate application information. Loading large volumes of
multimedia content into a management system requires associating the correct metadata;
indexing the content for search and retrieval; and, efficiently delivering the multimedia
content.
Media and metadata can be stored using following alternatives:
* Binary large objects, or BLOBs, stored within the database
* File-based large objects, or BFILEs, stored in local operating system specific file systems
* URLs containing image, audio, and video data stored on any HTTP server
* Specialized media storage servers
Multimedia database is a database that contains one or more media types of information
such as text, image, video clip, sound, diagram, and graphical animation and can help to
analyse the problem.
There are several applications that need the ability to query multimedia objects based on
their content. For example, online shopping, criminal record application, medical
applications, album of satellite images etc.
On the web there are huge data files that can support multimedia databases. For example,
consider the web-based image data management solution system contains Text that
provides a rich sensory experience, powerful search capabilities, and extraordinary
convenience to a large market of customers giving the system a distinct competitive
advantage. The system’s main assets are of course the images, and the traditional relational
(business) data. Placing all these assets in the same database management system reduces
administration and training costs, and increases system reliability, availability, and
scalability. Most important, it creates opportunities for multimedia information sharing,
redirection of that information, and integration of the multimedia data with traditional
relational data and other operational applications that manage the system’s business.
Advantages of multimedia database
Following are advantages to store multimedia objects in the database:
* Support for Diverse Data: Multimedia databases can manage various data types, including
text, images, audio, and video, allowing for a rich and varied dataset.
* Better security: multimedia objects are secured in the databases and can be invoked any
time when required. For example, a doctor can see M.R.I. report of patient whenever he
wants and can be preserved as long as the patient takes the treatment of doctor.
* Greater control (resizing, manipulating): multimedia objects can be resized when required
and certain changes can be made when required.
* Easy deletion: Images can be deleted without deleting the corresponding data from the
database
* One can search for multimedia content in the same fashion as they search for traditional
relational data. For instance, customers can search for images by a unique image name or
key, by photographer, or by category. In addition, customers can use Oracle interMedia’s
powerful image content-based retrieval capability to search for ‘similar’ images recursively
through the database. And once a customer has found an image of interest, they can simply
click on it and see the full resolution image.
* Easy to extract statistics on usage
Challenges to multimedia databases:
1. Modelling - Working in this area can improve database versus information retrieval
techniques thus, documents constitute a specialized area and deserve special
consideration.
2. Design - The conceptual, logical and physical design of multimedia databases has not
yet been addressed fully as performance and tuning issues at each level are far more
complex as they consist of a variety of formats like JPEG, GIF, PNG, MPEG which is
not easy to convert from one form to another.
3. Storage - Storage of multimedia database on any standard disk presents the problem of
representation, compression, mapping to device hierarchies, archiving and buffering
during input-output operation. In DBMS, a ”BLOB”(Binary Large Object) facility
allows untyped bitmaps to be stored and retrieved.
4. Performance - For an application involving video playback or audio-video
synchronization, physical limitations dominate. The use of parallel processing may
alleviate some problems but such techniques are not yet fully developed. Apart from this
multimedia database consume a lot of processing time as well as bandwidth.
5. Queries and retrieval -For multimedia data like images, video, audio accessing data
through query opens up many issues like efficient query formulation, query execution
and optimization which need to be worked upon.
Multimedia objects:
Multimedia comprises many kinds of media, including image, video, audio, graphics,
animation, hypertext, and hypermedia. It can also include MRI data and other abstract data
types (ADTs).
Media objects are similar to Java or C++ classes, to describe image, audio, and video data.
An instance of these objects consists of attributes, including metadata, the multimedia
content, and methods.
Multimedia content is the actual image, audio, or video data.
Metadata is format information about the multimedia content, including information such
as object length, compression or format, or application provided information (for example,
a singer’s name for a digital audio song).
Methods are procedures that can be performed on the object such as store, deliver, or extract
metadata, and compress or convert image format.
Image Type: These are two-dimensional, static, digital images stored as binary
representations of real-world objects or scenes, in most popular file formats and
compression schemes.
Image file formats provide a convenient means for an application to store an image in a flat
file. By publishing the internal layout of such a file, it is possible to use it as an interchange
medium between different applications.
A digital image consists of attributes that describe the characteristics of the image, and the
image data itself (the digitized bits). The image data (pixels) can have varying depths (bits
per pixel) depending on how the image was captured, and can be organized in various ways.
The minimum attributes of an image include the following:
* Size (height in scan lines and width in pixels)
* Number of bits per pixel in each of the colors sampled
* Compression type
* Content format
The content format consists of monochrome or bit depth, color space (GRAY, RGB),
Special attributes such as alpha channel or transparency color. Multimedia database
supports most popular desktop publishing image file formats, including: TIFF, JFIF (more
commonly referred to as JPG), BMP, TARGA, EXIF, PCX, PICT, GIF, CALS, SUN
RASTER, FPIX, PNGF, PPMF, PGMF, PBMF, WBMP, and RPIX.
Developers can easily store images created by applications without becoming experts in
image file formats.
Audio and Video Types: Audio and video services provide the foundation for digital audio
and video data in databases. Digitized audio/video consists of the data (digitized bits) and
the attributes that describe and characterize the data. The minimum collection of attributes
includes the following:
* Source type, location, and name
* Description
* File format
* Number of audio channels
* Sample/frame rate and sample/frame size
* Frame resolution and total number of frames
* Number of colors
* Bit rate
* Duration
These data attributes describe or characterize the data as it was recorded or produced
by the digital recording device.
Audio Formats: Audio data are stored in AIFF, AIFFC, AUFF, WAV, MPEG I, MPEG
II, MPEG III, and RealNetworks audio formats. It automatically extracts metadata
information from these formats, and stores it as attributes of the audio object.
Video Formats: Video data are stored in QuickTime, AVI, and RealNetworks video
formats. It enables applications to store metadata information as attributes of video object
Multimedia Objects Storage Model
The multimedia has a common multimedia storage model. The multimedia component of
these objects can be stored in the database, as a BLOB under transaction control. The
multimedia component can also be stored outside the database, without transaction control.
In this case, a pointer, under transaction control, is stored in the database, while the
multimedia component is stored in an external BFILE (operating system flat file), at an
HTTP server-based URL, on a specialized media server, or at a user-defined source on other
servers.
Multimedia content stored outside the database can provide a convenient mechanism for
managing large, or new multimedia repositories that reside as flat files on erasable or read-
only devices. This data can be imported and exported between BLOBs and the external
BFILE source at any time.
Object metadata and methods are always stored in the database. Whether multimedia
content is stored inside or outside the database, Database manages metadata for all the
multimedia object types, and automatically extracts that metadata for each type.
This metadata includes the following:
* Data storage information including the source types, location, and name
* Data update time and format
* MIME media type (used in Web and mail applications)
* Image height and width, and image content length, format, and compression type
* Audio encoding type, number of channels, sampling rate, sample size, compression
type, play time (duration), and description
* Video frame widths and heights, frame resolution and rate, play time(duration),
number of frames, compression type, number of colors, bit rate, and description
* Select application metadata (for example, singer or studio names)
Areas where multimedia database is applied are:
• Documents and record management: Industries and businesses that keep detailed
records and variety of documents. Example: Insurance claim record.
• Knowledge dissemination: Multimedia database is a very effective tool for knowledge
dissemination in terms of providing several resources. Example: Electronic books.
• Education and training: Computer-aided learning materials can be designed using
multimedia sources which are nowadays very popular sources of learning. Example:
Digital libraries.
• Marketing, advertising, retailing, entertainment and travel. Example: a virtual tour of
cities.
• Real-time control and monitoring: Coupled with active database technology, multimedia
presentation of information can be very effective means for monitoring and controlling
complex tasks Example: Manufacturing operation control.
Disadvantages
• High Costs: The necessity for high-speed processors, large storage, and specialized
software significantly increases hardware and software costs for both setup and ongoing
maintenance.
• System Complexity: Working with multimedia databases requires specialized knowledge
and skills, making the system complex to operate, manage, and maintain.
• Large Data Volumes: Multimedia data inherently consumes significant storage space and
processing time, which can be a major concern for system performance and cost.
• Performance Degradation: The complexity of handling diverse media types and performing
advanced indexing can sometimes lead to slower performance compared to direct file
access.
• Specialized Skills Required: Implementing and managing the specialized indexing and
retrieval techniques needed for different media types requires skilled personnel.
• Data Integrity Issues: Some systems may mutate raw files to optimize storage, potentially
leading to a loss of data integrity or quality.