Abstract
MPEG-7 can be used to create complex and comprehensive metadata descriptions of multimedia content. Since MPEG-7 is defined in terms of an XML schema, the semantics of its elements has no formal grounding. In addition, certain features can be described in multiple ways. MPEG-7 profiles are subsets of the standard that apply to specific application areas and that aim to reduce this syntactic variability, but they still lack formal semantics. We propose an approach for expressing the semantics explicitly by formalizing the constraints of various profiles using ontologies, logical rules and ad-hoc programming, thus enabling interoperability and automatic use for MPEG-7 based applications. We have implemented VAMP, a full semantic validation service that detects any inconsistencies of the semantic constraints formalized. Another contribution of this paper is an analysis of how MPEG-7 is practically used. We report on experiments about the semantic validity of MPEG-7 descriptions produced by numerous tools and projects and we categorize the most common errors found.




Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
VAMP is available as a web application at http://vamp.joanneum.at and as a web service.
Five other profiles are actually discussed in [15] but have been later merged or withdrawn.
The MPEG-7 Specification Repository is a semantic wiki for sharing information relevant for practical work with MPEG-7, e.g. specifications, examples, tools, events, projects, etc.
The proleptic Gregorian calendar includes dates prior to 1582 (the year it came into use as an ecclesiastical calendar).
References
Arndt R, Troncy R, Staab S, Hardman L, Vacura M (2007) COMM: designing a well-founded multimedia ontology for the web. In: 6th International semantic web conference (ISWC’07). Busan, South Korea, pp 30–43
Athanasiadis T, Tzouvaras V, Petridis K, Precioso F, Avrithis Y, Kompatsiaris Y (2005) Using a multimedia ontology infrastructure for semantic annotation of multimedia content. In: 5th International workshop on knowledge markup and semantic annotation (SemAnnot’05), Galway, Ireland
Bailer W, Schallauer P (2006) The detailed audiovisual profile: enabling interoperability between MPEG-7 based systems. In: 12th International multimedia modelling conference (MMM’06). Beijing, China, pp 217–224
Baral C, Gelfond M (1994) Logic programming and knowledge representation. J Log Program 19–20:73–148
Dean M, Schreiber G (2004) OWL Web ontology language: reference. W3C Recommendation. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/
Garcia R, Celma O (2005) Semantic integration and retrieval of multimedia metadata. In: 5th International workshop on knowledge markup and semantic annotation (SemAnnot’05). Galway, Ireland
Hobbs JR, Pan F (2006) Time ontology in OWL. W3C working draft. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-time/
Höffernig M, Hausenblas M, Bailer W (2007) Semantics of temporal media content descriptions. In: Multimedia metadata applications workshop (M3A). Graz, Austria, pp 155–162
Hunter J (2001) Adding multimedia to the semantic web—building an MPEG-7 ontology. In: First international semantic web working symposium (SWWS’01), Stanford
Hunter J, Lagoze C (2001) Combining RDF and XML schemas to enhance interoperability between metadata application profiles. In: 10th International world wide web conference (WWW’01), Hong Kong, pp 457–466
International Organization for Standardization (2000) Representations of dates and times, 2nd edn. ISO 8601, 15 December 2000
Manola F, Miller E (2004) RDF (Ressource Description Framework) Primer. W3C Recommendation, 10 February 2004. http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/
Motik B, Sattler U, Studer R (2005) Query answering for OWL-DL with rules. J Web Semantics 3(1):41–60
MPEG-7 (2001) Multimedia content description interface. ISO/IEC 15938
MPEG-7 (2005) Information technology—multimedia content description interface—Part 9: profiles and levels. ISO/IEC 15938-9:2005
MPF (2008) Metadata production framework specifications (v. 2.0.2E). Technical report, NHK science and technical research laboratories. http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/mpf/english/index.htm
Nack F, van Ossenbruggen J, Hardman L (2005) That obscure object of desire: multimedia metadata on the web (Part II). IEEE Multimed 12(1):54–63
Patel-Schneider PF, Hayes P, Horrocks I (2004) OWL web ontology language: semantics and abstract syntax. W3C Recommendation, 10 February 2004. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-semantics/
Pereira F (2001) MPEG-7 requirements document v.16. ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11/N4510. Pattaya, Thailand
Pfeiffer S, Srinivasan U (2000) TV anytime as an application scenario for MPEG-7. In: Workshop on standards, interoperability and practice, Los Angeles
Troncy R (2003) Integrating structure and semantics into audio-visual documents. In: 2nd International semantic web conference (ISWC’03), Sanibel Island, pp 566–581
Troncy R, Bailer W, Hausenblas M, Hofmair P, Schlatte R (2006) Enabling multimedia metadata interoperability by defining formal semantics of MPEG-7 profiles. In: 1st International conference on semantics and digital media technology (SAMT’06), Athens, pp 41–55
Troncy R, Carrive J, Lalande S, Poli J-P (2004) A motivating scenario for designing an extensible audio-visual description language. In: The international workshop on multidisciplinary image, video, and audio retrieval and mining (CoRIMedia), Sherbrooke
Tsinaraki C, Polydoros P, Christodoulakis S (2004) Interoperability support for Ontology-based video retrieval applications. In: 3rd International conference on image and video retrieval (CIVR’04), Dublin
van Ossenbruggen J, Nack F, Hardman L (2004) That obscure object of desire: multimedia metadata on the web (Part I). IEEE Multimed 11(4):38–48
XML Schema (2001) W3C Recommendation, 2 May 2001. http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Alia Amin (CWI) for the design of the VAMP interface, Philip Hofmair and Rudolf Schlatte (JRS) for their help in the implementation of VAMP, and Lynda Hardman (CWI) for her feedback on earlier versions of this paper. The research leading to this paper was partially supported by the European Commission under the contracts FP6-027026, “Knowledge Space of semantic inference for automatic annotation and retrieval of multimedia content - K-Space”, IST-2-511316, “IP-RACINE: Integrated Project - Research Area CINE” and FP6-027122, “SALERO: Semantic AudiovisuaL Entertainment Reusable Objects”.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Troncy, R., Bailer, W., Höffernig, M. et al. VAMP: a service for validating MPEG-7 descriptions w.r.t. to formal profile definitions. Multimed Tools Appl 46, 307–329 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-009-0397-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-009-0397-2