Fuzzy logic techniques in multimedia database querying: A Preliminary Investigation of the Potentials
Résumé
Fuzzy logic is known for providing a convenient tool for interfacing linguistic categories with numerical data and for expressing user’s preference in a gradual and qualitative way. Fuzzy set methods have been already applied to the representation of flexible queries and to the modelling of uncertain pieces of information in databases systems as well as in information retrieval. This methodology seems to be even more promising in multimedia databases which have a complex structure and from which documents have to be retrieved and selected not only from their contents but also from their appearance, as specified by the user. This paper provides a preliminary investigation of the potential applications of fuzzy logic in multimedia databases. Querying issues are more particularly emphasized. We distinguish two types of request, namely those which can be handled within some extended version of an SQL-like language, and those for which one has to elicitate user’s preference through examples and which have an incremental nature. Moreover, the particular case of semi-structured documents is briefly discussed. Lastly, potentials of flexible constraint satisfaction problems in document production are pointed out.