Proceedings Article | 16 June 1995
KEYWORDS: Image retrieval, Image processing, Data modeling, Databases, Data storage, Image compression, Research management, Systems modeling, Associative arrays, Visualization
A vast number of applications including defense, medical, manufacturing, law enforcement, digital library, education, space exploration, weather forecasting, and entertainment require efficient management of huge collections of nonalphanumeric data. The most common and important nonalphanumeric data in most of these applications is image data. Owing to the availability of a variety of visual sensors, several large collections of images and related anciliary data exists and are rapidly growing. Examples of such collections include LANDSAT, weather, medical, and DoD target signature images. Unfortunately, in most cases only a fraction of the collected data is ever utilized to its full potential. The primary reason for this under-utilization is the lack of pictorial data management techniques/systems. Conventional data management systems are not designed to handle pictorial data in an integrated fashion, i.e., images and alphanumeric data are not treated equally. In such systems, an image is stored as a tag field in the description of some entity. Images are not entities and they cannot be key fields. Furthermore, content-based retrieval of images and related data is not possible. Therefore, new data management technologies need to be developed for an integrated management of textual and imagery data. This requires a clear understanding of the requirements and desireable characteristics of a pictorial data management system. In almost all image information management (or integrated image database) applications, image information modeling, content-based image information retrieval, and memeory management are the most important issues to be resolved. In this paper, the requirements of an integrated image information management system and the challenges posed by image data from the data modeling, the content-based retrieval, and the memory management viewpoints are discussed.
