A data model and a query language for multimedia documents databases

A multimedia application involves information that may be in a form of vide o, images, audio, text and graphics, need to be stored, retrieved and manip ulated in large databases. In this paper, we propose an object-oriented dat abase schema that supports multimedia documents and their temporal, spatial and logical structures. We present a document example and show how the sch ema can adress all the structures described. We also present a multimedia q uery specification language that can be used to describe a multimedia conte nt portion to be retrieved from the database. The language provides means b y which the user can specify the information on the media as well as the te moral and spatial relationships among these media.