A Schema Partition for Multimedia Database Management Systems

We propose a partition of the conceptual schema of multimedia databases according to the different aspects of multimedia data. (1) In a multimedia type schema the specific characteristics of multimedia data are modelled but a homogeneous interface utilizing polymorphism is used. (2) A device schema makes applications independent from low level aspects of multimedia presentation devices and import or export from and to external environments. (3) An interaction schema allows interactive manipulation of presented multimedia data. The requirements of managing multimedia data in a database system like storage of high volume data and time-dependent presentation lead to support specific built-in functionality. This is also reflected in a new architecture currently under development using the object-oriented database management system VODAK designed and implemented at GMD-IPSI. The proposed partition provides a high degree of flexibility for extending the database system and designing multimed..