Multimedia support for databases

The following are two possible approaches to providing database functionality for multimedia data: a) the multimedia data as well as the metadata for it is stored together in a single database system, and b) the multimedia data is stored in a separate file system while the corresponding metadata for it is stored in a database system. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. The first approach implies that databases need to be redesigned to support multimedia data along with conventional data. Since this requires modifications to existing databases, businesses may not be convinced to replace their databases with a new one to accommodate multimedia. Furthermore, this integrated approach might be a burden for users who do not need full-fledged multimedia support. The second approach allows businesses to capitalize on their existing base and purchase a multimedia storage system and the necessary glue to integrate their databases with the multimedia storage system. This approach, however, may complicate the implementation of some of the database functionality such as data consistency. The authors provide an overview of a) the issues for supporting content-based queries and a brief survey of research done in this arena, and b) the issues related to the storage and retrieval of continuous media data