The design of an extensible multimedia library for an OODBMS

Abstract

Most database management systems deal with "binary large objects" (BLOBs). However, multimedia data types are being introduced to deal explicitly with still pictures, cartographic images and more recently video and audio. Nevertheless, limiting oneself to introducing these new data types is not a sufficient condition for easy modelling of multimedia schemas integrating multimedia information. The author proposes a library of abstract classes to model these types of multimedia objects in a coherent, reusable and extensible framework, the structure of which is based on a clear taxonomy of media and their subsequent combination to obtain complex multimedia objects. An originality of the work is that time is considered as a base media, in the same way as pictures or video! The aim was to introduce this hierarchy into an object-oriented database management system in order to ease the design and development of multimedia applications. Another important consideration was "query ability". The approach proved to be appropriate in the design of a real application on computer-aided learning, and is being used for the elaboration of an electronic enterprise journal.