Digital Image Access & Retrieval

The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio

Report of CE on Semantic DS

This document reports on the core experiment on the Semantic DS [5]. The Semantic DS allows describing the world depicted by the AV content and interpreting that world, i.e., the “about” of the AV content or depicted narrative reality, which sometimes is imaginary. The CE originally started at the Maui meeting in December 1999 [4]. Progress reports of the CE were provided at the Geneva meeting [1], at the Beijing meeting [3], and at the La Baule meeting [2]. In La Baule, some components of the Semantic DS were promoted to the WD - Semantic DS, SemanticBase DS, Object DS, Event DS, AgentObject DS, SemanticPlace DS, SemanticTime DS, MediaOccurrence DS, and semantic relations-, and others were promoted to the XM – SemanticState DS, Concept DS, and AbstractionLevel datatype. The goal of this CE is to continue the refinement and evaluation of the Semantic DS and to continue the evaluation of the use of membership functions to describe relation strength. The AbstractionLevel datatype was promoted to CD before Pisa. At Pisa, the work to update the specification of the the SemanticTime, SemanticPlace, and Event DSs and to explain the methods for abstraction and the use of abstract concepts was started. The main tasks of this core experiment have been the following: 1. To refine the specification of the Semantic DS by solving open issues identified by reviewers and previous CEs; 2. To recommend the standardization of more semantic relations; 3. To continue the investigation of the use of membership functions to describe the strength of relations; 4. To generate simple and complex semantic descriptions of multimedia material, 5. To continue the implementation of a retrieval and browsing application/s that use/s the generated descriptions and that show/s the functionality of the DSs in the MDS XM, and 6. To recommend changes and additions to the Semantic DS based on the results of the experiment. The retrieval application that the CE continued the development of the software that had already been integrated into the XM for the Semantic DS

Semantics of Multimedia in MPEG-7

In this paper, we present the tools standardized by MPEG-7 for describing the semantics of multimedia. In particular, we focus on the abstraction model, entities, attributes and relations of MPEG-7 semantic descriptions. MPEG-7 tools can describe the semantics of specific instances of multimedia such as one image or one video segment but can also generalize these descriptions either to multiple instances of multimedia or to a set of semantic descriptions. The key components of MPEG-7 semantic descriptions are semantic entities such as objects and events, attributes of these entities such as labels and properties, and, finally, relations of these entities such as an object being the patient of an event. The descriptive power and usability of these tools has been demonstrated in numerous experiments and applications, these make them key candidates to enable intelligent applications that deal with multimedia at human levels

(Meta)datastandaarden voor digitale archieven

In het derde werkpakket van het project BOM-Vl (Bewaring en Ontsluiting van Multimediale data in Vlaanderen, 2008-2009) staat de technische problematiek van langetermijnbewaring van digitaal erfgoed centraal. Het OAIS-model, een ISO-standaard sinds 2002, geldt hierbij als conceptueel referentiemodel dat richtlijnen biedt bij de opzet van een digitaal archief. Aan de hand hiervan werd in een eerste deliverable aangegeven met welke representatiewijzen van de data en soorten metadata men rekening dient te houden om de preservering van digitaal materiaal te garanderen en hoe men mogelijk dataverlies kan tegengaan door grondige technische overwegingen. In een uitvoerig overzicht, een state-of-the-art, komen de gangbare opslagformaten met betrekking tot verschillend audiovisueel materiaal aan bod. Vervolgens worden ook de meest courante standaarden in het bibliotheekwezen, de omroepsector, de culturele sector en de erfgoedsector besproken, in het bijzonder metadatastandaarden (descriptieve, technische, administratieve), thesauri of ontologieën en containerformaten. Ten slotte worden twee representatieve praktijkvoorbeelden toegelicht, namelijk de ontwikkeling van het e-Depot in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van Nederland en de opzet van een Europese meertalige zoekmachine voor cultureel erfgoedonderzoek. Dit boek is de neerslag van deze deliverable en is bedoeld als referentiewer

Access to Digital Cultural Heritage: Innovative Applications of Automated Metadata Generation Chapter 1: Digitization of Cultural Heritage – Standards, Institutions, Initiatives

The first chapter "Digitization of Cultural Heritage – Standards, Institutions, Initiatives" provides an introduction to the area of digitisation. The main pillars of process of creating, preserving and accessing of cultural heritage in digital space are observed. The importance of metadata in the process of accessing to information is outlined. The metadata schemas and standards used in cultural heritage are discussed. In order to reach digital objects in virtual space they are organized in digital libraries. Contemporary digital libraries are trying to deliver richer and better functionality, which usually is user oriented and depending on current IT trend. Additionally, the chapter is focused on some initiatives on world and European level that during the years enforce the process of digitization and organizing digital objects in the cultural heritage domain. In recent years, the main focus in the creation of digital resources shifts from "system-centred" to "user-centred" since most of the issues around this content are related to making it accessible and usable for the real users. So, the user studies and involving the users on early stages of design and planning the functionality of the product which is being developed stands on leading position

Bridging the Semantic Gap in Multimedia Information Retrieval: Top-down and Bottom-up approaches

Semantic representation of multimedia information is vital for enabling the kind of multimedia search capabilities that professional searchers require. Manual annotation is often not possible because of the shear scale of the multimedia information that needs indexing. This paper explores the ways in which we are using both top-down, ontologically driven approaches and bottom-up, automatic-annotation approaches to provide retrieval facilities to users. We also discuss many of the current techniques that we are investigating to combine these top-down and bottom-up approaches

Requirements for practical multimedia annotation

Applications that use annotated multimedia assets need to be able to process all the annotations about a specific media asset. At first sight, this seems almost trivial, but annotations are needed for different levels of description, these need to be related to each other in the appropriate way and, in particular on the Semantic Web, annotations may not all be stored in the same place. We distinguish between technical descriptions of a media asset from content-level descriptions. At both levels, the annotations needed in a single application may come from different vocabularies. In addition, the instantiated values for a term used from an ontology also need to be specified. We present a number of existing vocabularies related to multimedia

Mind the Gap: Another look at the problem of the semantic gap in image retrieval

This paper attempts to review and characterise the problem of the semantic gap in image retrieval and the attempts being made to bridge it. In particular, we draw from our own experience in user queries, automatic annotation and ontological techniques. The first section of the paper describes a characterisation of the semantic gap as a hierarchy between the raw media and full semantic understanding of the media's content. The second section discusses real users' queries with respect to the semantic gap. The final sections of the paper describe our own experience in attempting to bridge the semantic gap. In particular we discuss our work on auto-annotation and semantic-space models of image retrieval in order to bridge the gap from the bottom up, and the use of ontologies, which capture more semantics than keyword object labels alone, as a technique for bridging the gap from the top down

Art as Contemplative Place, with reference to Isamu Noguchi's sited works.

The term contemplative place, a new concept that forms the core of this research is defined as "space where a meaningful sense of calm can be experienced." Contemplative place situates itself as a category of place. M. Auge defines place as that which is "relational, historical and/or concerned with identity" (1995). For the artwork to be meaningful, it needs to be expressive and significant through its response to its physical, cultural, historical and/or social identity. With reference to Isamu Noguchi's sited works, three projects are seen as representatively defining his career. They are The UNESCO Garden in France - Noguchi's early attempt at using the landscape as an art form; the California Scenario in the USA -a corporate park where Noguchi successfully creates a meaningful sense of place; and the Domon Ken Museum of Photography in Japan -a simple reductive approach that addresses its context on several levels. Through the analysis and contextual isation of Noguchi's works, I begin to explore the strategic processes and principles that he used to make his works contemplative places. In my practice, I review and test evolving processes that incorporate the notions of place as well as my practice of meditation. Three case studies of past and current works are presented, each with a summary of analysis and a completed (or anticipated) experience. Then, through post-reflective thoughts, I begin to consolidate my own strategic processes and principles, and study how they have evolved and in some instances been influenced by Noguchi. As a final chapter, an evaluation addresses the similarities and differences between Noguchi's works and mine in achieving contemplative place. The intention of this research is that the term contemplative place can be understood and evolve over time with future research. The strategic processes and principles used by Noguchi and those newly developed through my own practice could prove as useful examples to inspire new frontiers for creating contemplative places as art forms

Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2018 Florence

The Publication is following the yearly Editions of EVA FLORENCE. The State of Art is presented regarding the Application of Technologies (in particular of digital type) to Cultural Heritage. The more recent results of the Researches in the considered Area are presented. Information Technologies of interest for Culture Heritage are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, data protection, access to digital content, Virtual Galleries. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts), regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace - Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The International Conference includes the following Sessions: Strategic Issues; New Sciences and Culture Developments and Applications; New Technical Developments & Applications; Museums - Virtual Galleries and Related Initiatives; Art and Humanities Ecosystem & Applications; Access to the Culture Information. Two Workshops regard: Innovation and Enterprise; the Cloud Systems connected to the Culture (eCulture Cloud) in the Smart Cities context. The more recent results of the Researches at national and international are reported in the Area of Technologies and Culture Heritage, also with experimental demonstrations of developed Activities