What are Multimedia IR Systems?
Tags: multimedia, ir, data, search
Published: 2022-06-28 15:19:26

Let's briefly overview the **Multimedia IR systems**. According to the  [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_retrieval), **Information retrieval** (IR) is the process of obtaining information system resources that are relevant to an information need from a collection of those resources. 
Further, according to the [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_information_retrieval) as well, **Multimedia information retrieval** (MMIR or MIR) is a research discipline of computer science that aims at extracting semantic information from **multimedia** data sources. 
Data sources include directly perceivable media such as audio, image and video, indirectly perceivable sources such as text, semantic descriptions, biosignals as well as not perceivable sources such as bioinformation, stock prices, etc. 
![Multimedia IR Systems Overview](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/tp18w3vou1gc553ss3f9.png)
An image retrieval system is a computer system for browsing, searching and retrieving images from a large database of digital images. 
Most traditional and common methods of image retrieval utilize some method of adding information such as captioning, keywords, title or descriptions to the images so that retrieval can be performed over the annotation words [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_retrieval). 
So, when they talk about private **Multimedia IR** that works with images and photos they talk about the search based on the metadata, tags and images/photos content [Multimedia Information Retrieval](https://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/abs/10.2200/S00244ED1V01Y200912ICR010).
Basing on market demand, the **Multimedia IR systems** additionally implement the indexing and storage functionality for the **multimedia** information. 
Still those systems might also include such functionality as extracting the descriptions for the **multimedia** data.
It is obvious, that if an average family does not have the **Multimedia IR system** to search, for one item in thirty thousand of photos, it would almost be impossible to find that one item if searching manually. 
That is why ordinary people would be very interested in **Multimedia IR systems** and their opportunities they provide.

![User needs in Multimedia IR Systems](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0ln2fngs1ktzfhmoy5by.png)
From end user's point of view, when they are accessing the photo album, the main need is the ability to search through the photo album easily and quickly.
In terms of searching ability, it shall also provide the cataloguing abilities and browsing the search results. Obviously, the search systems shall provide the full and correct search results.

## User's needs in Multimedia IR Systems
* the Multimedia IR system shall provide (or be integrated with other tools) an ability to keep the different types of multimedia data;
* it should be possible to represent any kind of multimedia information (photo, video, and audio) to user via UI;
* it should provide a simple way to edit the multimedia data;
* it should be possible to search through the content quickly and easily;
* it should allow filtering of information by several sets of criteria;
* relevance feedback shall be implemented; 
* it should include indexing and cataloguing functions;
* it should be possible to find information by example of image;
* it should include a function of browsing through the search results.
Moreover, not ordinary people only, but also the businesses might find Multimedia IR systems useful due to their professional needs. 
For example, there might be different professions who access the photos or images often in their everyday work activity, such as:

## Professional's needs in Multimedia IR systems
* photographers that provide their services to companies;
* journalists who work with camera to create multimedia news content;
* people of different professions who need access to images, like medical professionals searching for medical images or architects requiring the image examples to create the buildings;
* car engineers who need photographs and sound of car engines;
* video content engineers, when looking for special video segments and movies by their titles.

See also [What is multimedia data](https://dev.to/dimanikulin/what-is-multimedia-data-111f)