Object-oriented harmonization of multimedia XML applications

The problem of creating powerful XML applications by reutilizing and integrating functionalities from existing XML applications, called XML harmonization, is studied in this research. An object-oriented (OO) data model is first proposed. Then, the corresponding harmonization methodology for XML applications is presented. That is, we develop the harmonized extensible markup language (HXML) according to the proposed OO data model. HXML provides a uniform interface for users to access functionalities and objects of various XML applications being harmonized. An example that harmonizes two multimedia XML applications, i.e. synchronized multimedia integration language (SMIL) and extensible 3D (X3D), using the OO technique has been implemented and compared with the extensible MPEG-4 textual format (XMT). Our methodology provides better extendibility than any previous work in this emerging research field.