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Following on the decision of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29 to develop MPEG-7, a multimedia content description interface standard, it was decided that an application to further explore user requirements could be created using a variety of "off the shelf" protocols, technologies and tools.

Linking text and image retrieval in the peer-to-peer computing environment.

Indexing audio visual information currently done manually, based on a combination of thesaurus keywords and secondary descriptions. Different techniques are typically applied for documentaries, movies and other single subject programs, and news and magazine programs. For the latter you need to index both the program as a whole (to record the details of the program, title, time (s) of transmission, the producer, link presenter (s), etc. and the individual film clips (to record who made them, who added the commentary, what they show, etc.

These archives are used by research professionals and by companies wishing to identify clips that can be reused as part of new programs. Such people people typically use the clip descriptors rather than those describing the whole program to identify suitable sources.

Traditionally, clips have been indexed on things such as the names of people and locations shown, organizations mentioned and time recorded, rather than on topics covered. For single subject programs and abstract is often prepared together with a description of the sequences used and key indexing terms.

Today, many organizations would like to turn their archive into revenue producing multimedia libraries. To accomplish this objective they will need to be able to fully record the context in which the clips are generated and reused, and the relationship between the clips making up a program.

Furthermore, a standardized vocabulary for describing audio visual information is required. The vocabulary should cover things like shot type, duration, camera motion, location of shot, place/camera direction within location, time a which event was shot, actors, and other objects of interest, screen position, gaze direction, etc., as well as a summary of the actions recorded.