The relationship between IR and multimedia databases

Modern extensible database systems support multimedia data through ADTs. However, because of the problems with multimedia query formulation, this support is not sufficient.\ud \ud Multimedia querying requires an iterative search process involving many different representations of the objects in the database. The support that is needed is very similar to the processes in information retrieval.\ud \ud Based on this observation, we develop the miRRor architecture for multimedia query processing. We design a layered framework based on information retrieval techniques, to provide a usable query interface to the multimedia database.\ud \ud First, we introduce a concept layer to enable reasoning over low-level concepts in the database.\ud \ud Second, we add an evidential reasoning layer as an intermediate between the user and the concept layer.\ud \ud Third, we add the functionality to process the users' relevance feedback.\ud \ud We then adapt the inference network model from text retrieval to an evidential reasoning model for multimedia query processing.\ud \ud We conclude with an outline for implementation of miRRor on top of the Monet extensible database system

Content And Multimedia Database Management Systems

A database management system is a general-purpose software system that facilitates the processes of defining, constructing, and manipulating databases for various applications. The main characteristic of the ‘database approach’ is that it increases the value of data by its emphasis on data independence. DBMSs, and in particular those based on the relational data model, have been very successful at the management of administrative data in the business domain. This thesis has investigated data management in multimedia digital libraries, and its implications on the design of database management systems. The main problem of multimedia data management is providing access to the stored objects. The content structure of administrative data is easily represented in alphanumeric values. Thus, database technology has primarily focused on handling the objects’ logical structure. In the case of multimedia data, representation of content is far from trivial though, and not supported by current database management systems

Database Optimization Aspects for Information Retrieval

There is a growing need for systems that can process queries, combining both structured data and text. One way to provide such functionality is to integrate information retrieval (IR) techniques in a database management system (DBMS). However, both IR and database research have been separate research fields for decades, resulting in different - even conflicting - approaches to data management. Each DBMS has a component called a "query optimizer", which plays a crucial role in the efficiency and flexibility of the system. So, for successful integration the IR techniques and data structures, as well as the DBMS query optimizer, should be adapted to enable mutual cooperation. The author concentrates on top-N queries - a common class of IR queries. An IR top-N query asks for the N best documents given a set of keywords. The author proposes processing the data in batches as a compromise between IR and DBMS query processing. Experiments with this technique show that porting IR optimization techniques is (still) not a promising option due to the additional administrative overhead. Two new mathematical models are introduced to eliminate this overhead: a model that predicts selectivity, which is a crucial factor in the execution costs, and a model that predicts the quality of the top-N

Hybrid-search and storage of semi-structured information

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-118).Given today's tangle of digital information, one of the hardest tasks for computer users of information systems is finding anything in the mess. For a number of well documented reasons including the amazing growth in the Internet's popularity and the drop in the cost of storage, the amount of information on the net as well as on a user's local computer, has increased dramatically in recent years. Although this readily available information should be extremely beneficial for computer users, paradoxically it is now much harder to find anything. Many different solutions have been proposed to the general information seeking task of users, but few if any have addressed the needs of individuals or have leveraged the benefit of single-user interaction. The Haystack project is an attempt to answer the needs of the individual user. Once the user's information is represented in Haystack, the types of questions users may ask are highly varied. In this thesis we will propose a means of representing information in a robust framework within Haystack. Once the information is represented we describe a mechanism by which the diverse questions of the individual can be answered. This novel method functions by using a combination of existing information systems. We will call this combined system a hybrid-search system.by Eytan Adar.M.Eng