Visual query specification in a multimedia database system

A visual interface for a multimedia database management system (MDBMS) is described. DBMS query languages are linear in syntax. Although natural language interfaces have been found to be useful, natural language is ambiguous and difficult to process. For queries on standard (relational) data, these difficulties can be avoided with the use of a visual, graphical interface to guide the user in specifying the query. For image and other media data which are ambiguous in nature, natural language processing, combined with direct graphical access to the domain knowledge, is used to interpret and evaluate the natural language query. The system fully supports graphical and image input/output in different formats. The combination of visual effect and natural language specification, the support of media data, and the allowance of incremental query specification simplify the process of query specification not only for image or multimedia databases but also for all databases