Hypermedia and free text retrieval

摘要

This paper discusses aspects of multimedia document bases and how access to documents held on a computer-based system can be achieved; in particular, the current access methods of hypermedia and free text information retrieval are discussed. Browsing-based hypermedia systems provide ease of use for novice users and equal access to any media; however, they typically perform poorly with very large document bases. In contrast, query-based free text retrieval systems are typically designed to work with very large document bases, but have very poor multimedia capabilities. This paper presents a hybrid between these two traditional fields of information retrieval, together with a technique for using contextual information to provide access, through query, to documents that cannot be accessed by content (e.g., images). Two experiments are then presented that were carried out to test this approach. Finally, the paper gives a brief discussion of a prototype implementation, which provides access to mixed media information by query or browsing, and user-interface issues are discussed.