A content-based query language for video databases

Presents CVQL (Content-based Video Query Language) for video databases. Spatial and temporal relationships of content objects are used for the specification of query predicates. Queries of realism are illustrated to show the power of CVQL. Macro definitions are supported to simplify query specification. Index structures and query processing for CVQL are considered, and a prototype video database system is implemented, which consists of a GUI and a CVQL processor. Users can sketch a query and its corresponding predicate by using the GUI, and the query can then be converted to CVQL for processing.