A knowledge-based mediator for dynamic integration of heterogeneous multimedia information sources

To facilitate the efficient and accurate access and operation of a huge amount of multimedia information from various data sources, we propose a mediator to integrate heterogeneous multimedia information sources and their corresponding data operation API dynamically. To achieve this purpose, a reflection technique is adopted to extract heterogeneous API features at run time; a classifier component is designed to obtain global API features; and an ontology mechanism is used for hiding information heterogeneity. Ultimately, by using the proposed mediator, a global knowledge-based multimedia information API is produced, which makes multimedia applications and Web applications "understand" and operate heterogeneous information automatically and transparently. The proposed mediator provides multimedia applications with a unified interface for information operation and facilitates communication and interoperation between disparate multimedia applications.