What is multimedia information retrieval?
Clearly this is a complex subject. In the light of the above, the major components may be: • Each medium and its own technical problems, including: a) how to do user input of queries in the medium when that is appropriate for a user group; b) how to present a “document” when retrieved including how to present b2) its “context” and b3) why it matched the query; c) how to present surrogates e.g. thumbnail images, speeded up audio. • User tasks, for which the retrieval machine will only be one tool that is a means to part of the task. There is an infinite variety of such tasks. • Human-machine interaction: how to design a complete user-machine interactive cycle that maximises retrieval success and, more importantly, user-task-success over a number of cycles. • Inter-reference: between media, and between user input and machine output.
