Preface

This guide describes how to use Oracle interMedia.

Oracle interMedia ships with Oracle9i.

For information about Oracle9i and the features and options that are available to you, see Oracle9i Database New Features.

Audience

This guide is for application developers and database administrators who are interested in storing, retrieving, and manipulating audio, document, image, and video data in an Oracle database, including developers of audio, document, image, and video specialization options.

If you are interested in only one particular object type, see Chapter 1 for general introductory information, then, for a description of the methods that are common for all object types, refer to Chapter 5. If, for example, you are interested in the ORDImage object type, refer to Chapter 8, the ORDImage reference chapter for a description of the image-specific methods, then for a description of content-based retrieval and image matching, refer to Chapter 2.

Also, for examples about using the ORDImage methods, see Chapter 3 and for a description of using the relational interface with images, see Chapter 10. Then, for tuning tips for storing image files, see Chapter 11.

For information on supported image content and compression formats, see Appendix B. For information about using image processing methods, see Appendix D. Finally, for information about the raw pixel image format, see Appendix E.

Organization

This guide contains the following chapters and appendixes:

Chapter 1	Introduces multimedia and Oracle interMedia; explains multimedia-related concepts.
Chapter 2	Explains concepts, operations, and techniques related to content-based retrieval.
Chapter 3	Provides basic examples of using Oracle interMedia object types and methods.
Chapter 4	Provides compatibility information for ensuring future compatibility with evolving object types.
Chapter 5	Provides reference information about methods that are common to ORDAudio, ORDDoc, ORDImage, and ORDVideo object types.
Chapter 6	Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDAudio object type and methods.
Chapter 7	Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDDoc object type and methods.
Chapter 8	Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDImage object type and methods.
Chapter 9	Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDVideo object type and methods.
Chapter 10	Provides reference information on interMedia relational interface methods for the ORDAudio, ORDDoc, ORDImage, and ORDVideo object types.
Chapter 11	Provides tuning tips for the DBA for more efficient storage of multimedia data.
Appendix A	Describes the supported audio data formats.
Appendix B	Describes the supported image data formats.
Appendix C	Describes the supported video data formats.
Appendix D	Describes the process and processCopy operators.
Appendix E	Describes the raw pixel format.
Appendix F	Describes how to run the sample program and includes the source program.
Appendix G	Emphasizes several entries from the online FAQ.
Appendix H	Lists exceptions raised and potential errors, their causes, and user actions to correct them.
Appendix I	Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDSource object type and methods.
Appendix J	Describes the deprecated audio and video methods.

Conventions

In this guide, Oracle interMedia is sometimes referred to as interMedia.

In examples, an implied carriage return occurs at the end of each line, unless otherwise noted. You must press the Return key at the end of a line of input.

The following conventions are also used in this guide:

Convention	Meaning
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points in an example mean that information not directly related to the example has been omitted.
. . .	Horizontal ellipsis points in statements or commands mean that parts of the statement or command not directly related to the example have been omitted.
boldface text	Boldface text indicates a term defined in the text.
italic text	Italic text is used for emphasis, book titles, and variable names.
< >	Angle brackets enclose user-supplied names.
[ ]	Brackets enclose optional clauses from which you can choose one or none.

Changes to This Guide

The following substantive changes have been made to this guide since its previous version for release 8.1.7 on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Web site.

Other minor corrections and clarifications have also been included.

A new document object, ORDDoc, is available. The ORDDoc document type can be used in applications that require you to store different types of documents, such as audio, image, video, and any other type of document in the same column so you can build a common metadata index on all the different types of documents and search across different types of documents using this index. See Chapter 7 for more information.

Content-based retrieval of images with extensible indexing is supported for image matching. See Chapter 2, the ORDImageSignature Object Type, the evaluateScore( ) method, and the image operators described in Section 8.2.3 for more information.

interMedia image supports the Java Advanced Imaging engine. See the process( ) method, Appendix B, and Appendix D for more information.

An interMedia relational interface is available for application developers, who created multimedia applications without using the interMedia object types to store and manage media data in relational tables, and who do not want to migrate their existing multimedia applications to use interMedia objects. See Chapter 10 for more information.

Documentation Accessibility

Oracle's goal is to make our products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to the disabled community with good usability. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.