A multimedia database is a database that hosts one or more primary media file types such as .txt (documents), .

jpg (images), .swf (videos), .mp3 (audio), etc. And loosely fall into three main categories:

tatic media (time!independent, i.e. images and handwriting) "ynamic media (time!dependent, i.e. video and sound bytes) "imensional media (i.e. 3" games or computer!aided drafting programs! #A")

All primary media files are stored in binary strings of $eros and ones, and are encoded according to file type. %he term &data& is typically referenced from the computer point of view, whereas the term &multimedia& is referenced from the user point of view.

Types of Multimedia Databases

%here are numerous different types of multimedia databases, including:

%he Authentication 'ultimedia "atabase (also (nown as a )erification 'ultimedia "atabase, i.e. retina scanning), is a *:* data comparison %he +dentification 'ultimedia "atabase is a data comparison of one!to!many (i.e. passwords and personal identification numbers A newly!emerging type of multimedia database, is the ,iometrics 'ultimedia "atabase- which speciali$es in automatic human verification based on the algorithms of their behavioral or physiological profile.

%his method of identification is superior to traditional multimedia database methods re.uiring the typical input of personal identification numbers and passwords! "ue to the fact that the person being identified does not need to be physically present, where the identification chec( is ta(ing place. %his removes the need for the person being scanned to remember a /+0 or password. 1ingerprint identification technology is also based on this type of multimedia database.

Difficulties Involved with Multimedia Databases

%he difficulty of ma(ing these different types of multimedia databases readily accessible to humans is:

%he tremendous amount of bandwidth they consume#reating 2lobally!accepted data!handling platforms, such as 3oomla, and the special considerations that these new multimedia database structures re.uire.

#reating a 2lobally!accepted operating system , including applicable storage and resource management programs need to accommodate the vast 2lobal multimedia information hunger. 'ultimedia databases need to ta(e into accommodate various human interfaces to handle 3"!interactive objects, in an logically!perceived manner (i.e. econd4ife.com). Accommodating the vast resources re.uired to utili$e artificial intelligence to it5s fullest potential! including computer sight and sound analysis methods. %he historic relational databases (i.e the ,inary 4arge 6bjects ! ,46,s! developed for 74 databases to store multimedia data) do not conveniently support content!based searches for multimedia content.

%his is due to the relational database not being able to recogni$e the internal structure of a ,inary 4arge 6bject and therefore internal multimedia data components cannot be retrieved... ,asically, a relational database is an &everything or nothing& structure! with files retrieved and stored as a whole, which ma(es a relational database completely inefficient for ma(ing multimedia data easily accessible to humans. +n order to effectively accommodate multimedia data, a database management system , such as an 6bject 6riented "atabase (66",) or 6bject 8elational "atabase 'anagement ystem (68",' ). 9xamples of 6bject 8elational "atabase 'anagement ystems include 6daptor (:/): ;ni 74, 6",!++, and +llustra. %he flip!side of the coin, is that unli(e non!multimedia data stored in relational databases, multimedia data cannot be easily indexed, retrieved or classified, except by way of social boo(mar(ing and ran(ing!rating, by actual humans. %his is made possible by metadata retrieval methods, commonly referred to as tags, and tagging. %his is why you can search for dogs, as an example, and a picture comes up based on your text search term. %his is also referred to a schematic mode. <hereas doing a search with a picture of a dog to locate other dog pictures is referred to as paradigmatic mode. :owever, metadata retrieval, search, and identify methods severely lac( in being able to properly define uniform space and texture descriptions, such as the spatial relationships between 3" objects, etc. %he #ontent!,ased 8etrieval multimedia database search method (#,8), however, is specifically based on these types of searches. +n other words, if you were to search an image or sub!image- you would then be shown other images or sub!images that related in some way to your the particular search, by way of color ratio or pattern, etc.