Semantic description of signal and image databases

Abstract

Information navigation and search on the part of a user requires thorough description of the information content of signal and image datasets and archives. Large signal and image databases need comprehensive metadata to facilitate user access. There is no unique way to describe the semantics of images and signals. Therefore a conceptual model serves as an initial platform. From the conceptual model, a database design can be derived, or a definition of metadata. The different steps from model to description can benefit from tools such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for the conceptual model, standard Entity/Relationship (ER) models for database design, and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for metadata description. As examples of the process of conceptual design and semantic description, we consider the case of a signal database, and the case of astronomical image databases.