Description schemes for retrieval applications targeted to the audiovisual market

In the near future, retrieval applications accessing audiovisual material databases (or digital libraries in a general sense) will be using the emerging MPEG-7 standard. Current applications may prepare themselves for an easy migration if they are designed following current specifications of this forthcoming ISO standard. The paper presents a set of description schemes (DSs) that have been defined following current MPEG-7 definitions and work, also proposing contributions to this standard. These description schemes are intended for retrieval applications targeted to audiovisual market applications. An instantiation of these DSs, which define descriptors based on user requirements, is under use in the ACTS-361 HYPERMEDIA pilot project.