Today's databases contain much more than text and numbers. They contain an increasing quantity of nontextual data types including images, sounds, video, and scanned document data, (e.g., manuscripts, signatures, and other handwritten texts.) Conventional database methods do not always function well with multimedia data objects, however. Prevailing database management systems are challenged by the need to identify querying and data-handling paradigms to support access to multimedia data types. Approaches to building effective multimedia database systems must employ an interdisciplinary mix of techniques derived from the areas of computer vision, human computer interaction, artificial intelligence, database management, and networking. An earlier book, coedited by Subrahmanian (Marcus & Subrahmanian, 1996b), drew from these disparate fields and dealt with the topic of multimedia database systems from a research theoretical perspective. The primary purpose of the current book is to translate theory into practice and to provide a textbook that will instruct students in the construction of multimedia database systems.
Geared towards graduate students and senior level undergraduates who have had exposure to discrete mathematics, data structures, and a few programming courses, this well-written and wellorganized text is intended primarily to support a multimedia database course in a computer science program. The term projects assume familiarity with C or Cฯฉฯฉ programming, and knowledge of JAVA would be helpful for some of the later projects. Although the author states that a familiarity with the X windows toolkit is not necessary, supplemental instruction is indeed needed to complete the assignments. There are course outlines for standard (14-week) courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Additionally, there is an outline to support independent learning in an organizational setting. Practice exercises appear at the ends of Chapters 2 through 14 and there are nine term projects designed for both individuals and groups. The URL given in the book's preface did not contain a link to the author's support site for the book at the time of writing this book review. The publishers promise that this will be corrected shortly. Currently, the direct URL for supporting materials, http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/vs/ book/index.html, provides links to all pages mentioned in the book including corporate and product sites and demos. The homework solutions manual is available by request to authorized users, as are slides for instructor use. There are also supplemental homework assignments and sample midterm and final exams.
One of the strengths of the book is its organization around the "Sample Multimedia Scenario." This scenario involves the investigation of a large-scale drug operation by police in several geographic areas. In this scenario, the police have video surveillance tapes, audiotapes from wire taps, and interviews, photographs, text documents, structured relational data such as bank transactions, and telephone books, and geographic information systems data.