Advanced multimedia applications call for integrated database system support for the management of multimedia data. Traditional database management systems do not provide appropriate concepts and services for the integrated modeling, management, and interactive presentation of multimedia data. Our approach towards a multimedia database management system offers presentation independence to applications, which is in line with traditional database system services like data independence and multi-user support. This new service is realized by the integration of appropriate concepts for continuous object management, the representation and presentation of multimedia data, and the execution of interactive end-user presentations into an open object-oriented database system. The resulting multimedia database system consists of database clients for the interactive presentation of multimedia data, which can be adapted to particular needs of applications, and a database server for the efficient management of and access to multimedia data.

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