A database management system kernel for image collections

Abstract

The paper presents a single-user, relational DBMS kernel, for managing visual information. The functions of this multimedia DBMS are: creating/deleting databases and tables, adding constrains, inserting, updating, deleting records, text based querying and content based visual querying using the color characteristics. The originality character of this DBMS is given by two aspects: the first aspect refers to the Image data type that permits binary storage of images and extracted color information represented by the color histogram with maximum 166 colors; the second aspect refers to the visual interface for building content-based image query using color characteristics, that generates a modified SELECT command that will be sent to kernel for execution. This DBMS has as advantages the low cost and easiness in usage, being recommended in medical or art domains where large amounts of visual information are collected, managed and queried.