An intelligent DBMS for integrating alphanumeric and media data

The integration of preexisting alphanumeric data and media-data-like images, sound, and graphics generally results in a multidatabase system architecture. One can embed the media data into the alphanumeric part or regard alphanumeric and media data as equally important. It is demonstrated how the DEMOM (Description Based Media Object Data Model) can be applied to both approaches. DEMOM provides a uniform framework for managing different types of media data, enhanced with natural language content descriptions. In DEMOM media objects are defined as a class hierarchy of objects. The content descriptions form the basis for the creation of content/context hierarchies to support different organizations of media objects and are used for intelligent retrieval