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Process and apparatus for management of multimedia databases

  • US 6,925,475 B2
  • Filed: 10/11/2002
  • Issued: 08/02/2005
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2001
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of managing a multimedia database, the method being characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

  • creating an identifier allocator agent for associating a unique reference with each representative element of a multimedia document at each step of the processing;

    acquiring a multimedia document of heterogeneous content comprising information belonging to at least one of the following categories;

    image, video, sound, text, animated vector graphics;

    indexing the multimedia document, where indexing comprises;

    a1) analyzing the multimedia document both to extract both homogeneous components each belonging to a category of the same type, and also to extract relationships between said homogeneous components;

    b1) characterizing the content of each of the homogeneous components and establishing relationships between the elements of the content of each of said homogeneous components;

    c1) establishing the relationships, if any, between the elements belonging to the contents of different homogeneous components; and

    d1) producing a composite signature combining the indices of each of the homogeneous components, the previously identified relationships, and all of the previously acquired identifiers;

    storing the indexed multimedia document together with its composite signature; and

    searching a multimedia document as previously indexed and stored on the basis of a composite request, searching comprising;

    a2) analyzing the composite request to extract firstly homogeneous requests referring to a category of a single type, and secondly user constraint relationships expressed in the composite request;

    b2) processing homogeneous requests;

    c2) formulating results of processing homogeneous requests while taking user constraint relationships into account; and

    d2) establishing a pertinence order for the results and presenting the results.

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