Spatio-temporal query for multimedia databases

Abstract

Complex media events are often characterized by spatio-temporal relations between its constituent media objects. A multimedia query language should support specification of such relations for semantic retrieval. We propose a method for formally defining 3D spatio-temporal relations between elementary media objects in this paper. To support soft decision making for multimedia data interpretation and to provide graded ranking, we define these relations using a set of fuzzy membership functions. It is possible to define fuzzy 3D extensions of Allen's relations as well as arbitrary new relations using our method. This method can be incorporated with upcoming multimedia query languages, such as MP7QF.