Metadatabase and search agent for multimedia database access over Internet

The authors investigate approaches to the creations of a metadatabase and a search agent in a metaserver which support global visual access to multimedia databases over Internet. The metadata for inclusion within the metadatabase is formulated on the basis of visual content of the images housed at each remote multimedia database. The search agent, located within the metaserver accesses the metadatabase and derives a ranking of database sites for the distribution of user queries. The proposed metadatabase and search agent are implemented in a Web-based multimedia information retrieval environment