Issues in using specifications to improve content-based search of multimedia data

Many current multimedia database management systems perform content-based retrieval of images by extracting the values of various features from every object stored in their system. This can be time-consuming, especially if extracting the features requires a human to analyze each object. This process can be minimized in multimedia database systems that store images as a sequence of editing operations, called specifications, instead of the usual binary format. This paper discusses the advantages and applicability of such systems and the issues that must be resolved in order to develop them.