Architecture for the interaction and access on multimedia database systems in the context of mobile environments

In mobile multimedia systems, the mobility of users, devices, and information produces new challenges for processing globally distributed information. We focus our attention on new strategies for the adaptation and integration of database techniques regarding the management of multimedia data types at the particular conditions of mobile infrastructures. We believe that object-relational database systems, e.g. Informix are ideal repositories on the stationary server side for next generation multimedia applications, especially in internetworked LAN or WAN environments. The basic idea of this paper is the integration of object-relational database technology in a Mobility Information Center (MIC) as a framework which faces the common problems of mobile computing like limited bandwidth, end systems with limited resources as well as the problems in the context of multimedia data access and interaction. The major aim is to optimize the mobile data exchange by using content based information retrieval and reduction methods as well as media specific queries within the database system in order to reduce the amount of data to be transferred. All these methods are influenced by contexts like local resources, available communication channels, and user preferences.