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IFIP - The International Federation for Information Processing
IFIP was founded in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO, following the First World
Computer Congress held in Paris the previous year. An umbrella organization for societies
working in information processing, IFIP's aim is two-fold: to support information processing
within its member countries and to encourage technology transfer to developing nations. As
its mission statement clearly states,
IFIP's mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which
encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of information
technology for the benefit of all people.
IFIP is a non-profitmaking organization, run almost solely by 2500 volunteers. It operates
through a number of technical committees, which organize events and publications. IFIP's
events range from an international congress to local seminars, but the most important are:
• the IFIP World Computer Congress, held every second year;
• open conferences;
• working conferences.
The flagship event is the IFIP World Computer Congress, at which both invited and
contributed papers are presented. Contributed papers are rigorously refereed and the rejection
rate is high.
As with the Congress, participation in the open conferences is open to all and papers may
be invited or submitted. Again, submitted papers are stringently refereed.
The working conferences are structured differently. They are usually run by a working
group and attendance is small and by invitation only. Their purpose is to create an atmosphere
conducive to innovation and development. Refereeing is less rigorous and papers are
subjected to extensive group discussion.
Publications arising from IFIP events vary. The papers presented at the IFIP World
Computer Congress and at open conferences are published as conference proceedings, while
the results of the working conferences are often published as collections of selected and
edited papers.
Any national society whose primary activity is in information may apply to become a full
member of IFIP, although full membership is restricted to one society per country. Full
members are entitled to vote at the annual General Assembly, National societies preferring a
less committed involvement may apply for associate or corresponding membership. Associate
members enjoy the same benefits as full members, but without voting rights. Corresponding
members are not represented in IFIP bodies. Affiliated membership is open to non-national
societies, and individual and honorary membership schemes are also offered
Visual Database
Systems 4
(VDB4)
IFIP TC2 / WG2.6 Fourth Working Conference on
Visual Database Systems 4 (VDB4)
27-29 May 1998, L' Aquila, Italy
Edited by
Yannis loannidis
Dept ofI nformatics
University ofA thens
Bellas (Greece)
and
Wolfgang Klas
Dept ofI nformatics
University of Ulm
Germany
IUlll
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
First edition 1998
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Origittally published by International Federation for Information Processing in 1998
100'"
Thomson Science is a division ofIntemational Thomson Publishing
ISBN 978-1-4757-6939-5 ISBN 978-0-387-35372-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-35372-2
AII rights reserved. No part of Ibis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in auy form or by auy means, electronic, mechaoical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without Ibe prior permission of Ibe pubJishers. Applications for
permission should be addressed to Ibe rights manager al Ibe London address of Ibe publisber.
The publisher makes no repre8entation, express or implied, wilb regard to Ibe accuracy of
Ibe information contained in this book aRd cannot accept auy legal responsibility or liability
for auy errors or omissions Ibat may be made.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
~ Printed on permanent acid-free text paper, manufactured in accordauce with
ANSIINISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
CONTENTS
Message from the General Chair ix
Message from the Program Co-Chairs xi
Committees xiii
PART 1 Invited Talk
1 Selected ingredients in end-user programming 3
M.M.Zloof
PART 2 Session: Models and Metaphors 19
2 Exploiting model-based techniques for user interfaces to databases 21
T. Griffiths, J. McKirdy, G. Forrester, N. Paton, J. Kennedy,
P. Barclay, R. Cooper, C. Goble and P. Gray
3 Building metaphors for supporting user interaction with multimedia
databases 47
M.F. Costabile, D. Malerba, M. Hemmje and A. Paradiso
PART 3 Session: Database Interfaces 67
4 What you see is what you store: database-driven interfaces 69
J. Thamm and L. Wegner
5 Kaleidoscape: a 3D environment for querying ODMG compliant databases 85
N. Murray, C. Goble and N. Paton
PART 4 Session: Spatial Databases 103
6 A visual database system for spatial and non-spatial data management 105
T. Dalamagas, T. Sellis and L. Sinos
7 Visualizing and animating R-trees and spatial operations in spatial
databases on the worldwide web 123
F. Brabec and H. Samet
PART 5 Panel 141
8 Is video a useful means of sharing information? 143
D. Bulterman
PART 6 Demonstrations 145
9 The VASCO R-tree JAVA applet 147
F. Brabec and H. Samet
vi Contents
10 Metaphors for supporting user interaction with multimedia databases -
a demonstration 154
M.F. Costabile, D. Malerba, M. Hemmje and A. Paradiso
11 Image information system (U.S): a visual database system for spatial and
non-spatial data management 161
L. Sinos, T. Dalamagas and T. SeWs
12 A working generic canonical schematic UIMS for an ODBMS 168
E. Essenius, M. Sim, P. Kist, N. Simon and W. Gerhardt
13 ESCHER's complex objects: a demonstration of simplicity 175
B. Fischer, J. Thamm, L. Wegner, S. Wilke and C. Zirkelbach
14 Direct manipulation spatial exploration using SVIQUEL 179
S. Kaushik and E. Rundensteiner
15 VisualMOQL: a visual query language for image databases 186
V. Oria, B. Xu and M. T. Ozsu
16 Image matching using the OBIR system with feature point
histograms 192
Y. Tao and w.l. Grosky
PART 7 Posters 199
17 Textural features and relevance feedback for image retrieval 201
E. Vi Sciascio, G. Piscitelli and A. Celentano
18 A content-based video retrieval method using a visualized sound pattern 208
K. Fushikida, Y. Hiwatari and H. Waki
19 Virtual cell: a general framework for simulating and visualizing cellular
physiology 214
D.-G. Shin, L. Liu, L.M. Loew and J. Schaff
PART 8 Invited Talk 221
20 Crossing the divide between computer vision and databases in search
of image databases 223
A. W.M. Smeulders, M.L. Kersten and T. Gevers
PART 9 Session: Image Queries 241
21 Multiscale similarity matching for subimage queries of arbitrary size 243
K.-S. Leung and R. Ng
22 Effective image retrieval supporting complex similarity queries 265
G.-H. Cha and c.-w. Chung
23 Weighting spatial relationships in retrieval by visual contents 277
A. Del Bimbo and E. Vicario
PART 10 Session: Modeling and Usability 293
24 Visual modeling of temporal data in usability experiments 295
S.F. Silva and T. Catarci
Contents vii
25 Human Modelling and design of spatio-temporal queries on 3D
video database 317
T. Tomii, K. Salev, S. [mai and H. Arisawa
PART 11 Session: Complex VISual Management 337
26 Visualizing complex schemas in description logic using movable
lens filters 339
G.K. Ng, C.A. Goble and A.J. West
27 A method for shot boundary detection and R-frame selection of digital video 361
J.Y. Lee, S.Y. Jeong, B.T. Chun and Y.J. Bae
Index of contributors 377
~ywo~index 379
Message from the General Chair
Welcome to the proceedings of the Fourth International Working Confer
ence on Visual Database Systems (VDB-4), organized by the Database work
ing group of IFIP TC2 (for information on IFIP WG 2.6, please refer to:
http://www.informatik.uni-ulm.de/dbis/IFIP-WG2.6).
Consistently with the characteristic scope of this conference series, this vol
ume offers contributions on both visual interfaces and management of visual
data.
On the former, the volume reports on most recent developments in ap
proaches and techniques for the design of user interfaces, including such ad
vanced features as 3-dimensional and multilevel visualization and animation,
and addressing novel domains like multimedia or spatio-temporal data access.
On the latter, the selected papers mainly address the issue of effective im
age retrieval, including the use of spatio-temporal characteristics of images,
although issues of digital video analysis are also discussed.
For both domains an invited talk by a leading expert complements the se
lected papers. I am happy that we have the chance to host the presentations
by Moshe Zloof, the inventor of an interface style (Query By Example) that
has inspired so many other designers in their attempts to achieve simple but
powerful interfaces, and Arnold Smeulders, whose research on image informa
tion systems builds on both image and database technology.
If you are attending the conference, I am sure that you will be pleased to
discover these innovative contributions and that they will trigger new benefi
cial insights into your own work, whether research or application oriented. I
do encourage you to take the opportunity of presentations longer than usual
and the working conference atmosphere to discuss with the other attendees
and share your appreciation of these challenging issues. I also strongly sug
gest that you attend the demo and poster sessions, which offer complementary
material that should not be missed.
If you didn't have the chance to attend, I am glad that you got this volume
which will serve you as a reference for further discoveries and investigations.
I do hope that it will lead you to take an active part in the next conference,
to be held in the year 2000 in Fukuoka, Japan.
Let me thank the program co-chairs, Yannis Ioannidis and Wolfgang Klas,
for the excellent outcome they have achieved in putting together the confer
ence program. I also express my thanks to Laura Tarantino, our host, for the
facilities and the help that she and her colleagues have provided, and for the
opportunity to some days in such a beautiful place.
Enjoy VDB-4! I will now be looking forward to see you at VDB-5.
Stefano Spaccapietra
General Chair
Message from the Program Co-Chairs
The Fourth IFIP 2.6 Working Conference on Visual Database Systems
(VDB4) is held in L' Aquila, Italy, May 27-29, 1998. It follows the tradi
tion of past VDB meetings in bringing together researchers, practitioners,
and developers, to explore new concepts, tools, and techniques for both visual
interfaces to database systems and management of visual data by database
systems. It provides a forum for original research contributions and practical
system design, implementation, and evaluation.
In response to the call for papers, this year's program committee received
thirty six (36) contributions. Each submission was carefully reviewed by at
least three members of the committee and then electronically discussed by the
reviewers. In the end, the committee decided to accept thirteen (13) of these
papers for presentation during regular sessions of the conference. Three (3) of
the remaining submissions were also selected by the program chairs to be pre
sented as posters at the conference. In addition, one panel and seven software
demonstrations were accepted, strengthening and offering great diversity to
the program.
The conference also features two invited lectures by recognized leaders in
the fields of user interfaces and image databases, respectively. These are "hot"
topics within the main themes of the conference, so the invited lectures are
intended to lay the seeds for fruitful discussions on the directions of visual
data management.
The program committee would like to thank all those who submitted pa
pers, panel or demonstration proposals. The strength of the technical program
reflects the quality of the submissions and the importance of the entire field.
In turn, we would like to express our deep appreciation to all the members
of the program committee for their very hard work and dedication, and espe
cially their efficiency and effectiveness during the electronic interactions over
the network.
Yannis Ioannidis
Wolfgang Klas
Program Co-Chairs
General Chair
Stefano Spaccapietra
EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
Program Co-Chairs
Yannis Ioannidis
University of Athens, Hel/as (Greece) and University of Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Wolfgang Klas
Universitaet Ulm, Germany
Program Committee
Karl Aberer (Germany) Jessie Kennedy (UK)
Ricardo Baeza-Yates (Chile) Ravi Krishnamurthy ( USA)
Christian Breiteneder (Austria) Tosiyasu L. Kunii (Japan)
Dick Bulterman (Netherlands) Stefano Levialdi (Italy)
Tiziana Catarci (Italy) Tom D.C. Little (USA)
Stavros Christodoulakis (Hel/as) Pericles Loucopulos (UK)
Isabel Cruz (USA) Robert Meersman (Belgium)
Max J. Egenhofer (USA) Rajiv Mehrotra ( USA)
Arif Ghafoor (USA) Alberto Mendelzon (Canada)
Simon Gibbs (Germany) Erich J. Neuhold (Germany)
William I. Grosky (USA) Tamer Ozsu (Canada)
Oliver Guenther (Germany) Fausto Rabitti (Italy)
Wendy Hall (UK) Raghu Ramakrishnan (USA)
Ramesh Jain ( USA) Elke Rundensteiner (USA)
Hannu Kangassalo (Finland) Hanan Samet (USA)
Daniel Keim (Germany) Ben Shneiderman (USA)
Lisa Tweedie (UK)
Local Organization
Laura Tarantino
Universita degli Studi dell' Aquila, Italy
External Reviewers
Wasfi G. AI-Khatib Sudhir Kaushik
Giuseppe Amato Frank Nack
Olga De Troyer Srinivas Sista
Andre Everts Aya Soffer
Kathrin Gayer Fabio Paterno
Lynda Hardman Gerrit Riessen
Eric Harley Lloyd Rutledge
Matthias Hemmje Steven L. Tanimoto
Gisli R. Hjaltason Jef Wijsen
