Similarity-based retrieval of temporal specifications and its application to the retrieval of multimedia documents

In this paper, we describe a similarity-based retrieval framework for temporal information, such as multimedia presentations. We develop techniques that allow users to query and retrieve multimedia documents, based on their temporal content. For this purpose, we describe different temporal data models and a set of similarity metrics applicable for different retrieval tasks. We develop algorithms that efficiently compute these metrics and report on experiment results. We also develop algorithms that efficiently index temporal structures based on these measures and show that the proposed variant of multi dimensional scaling is efficient and provides high quality retrieval of temporal specifications.