A comprehensive, systematic approach to multimedia database management systems. It presents methods for managing the increasing demands of multimedia databases and their inherent design and architecture issues, and covers how to create an effective multimedia database by integrating the various information indexing and retrieval methods available. It also addresses how to measure multimedia database performance that is based on similarity to queries and routinely affected by human judgement. The book concludes with a discussion of networking and operating system support for multimedia databases and a look at research and development in this dynamic field.