The research project involves the design, development and experimental demonstration of a model that integrates time with object databases. Preliminary evidence suggests that existing notions of temporal data must be modified because of the transition from the relational to the object model. As such, this model is the first step towards the synthesis of an integrated object model that supports the temporal aspects of data modeling in addition to the structural and dynamic ones. Investigations to be undertaken include: (a) the study of the semantics of time and the development of a set of temporal principles to be used as an underlying basis for the design of our temporal object model; (b) the study of the temporal aspects of objects and the development of a model for integrating time with objects and the formalization of the model; (c) the augmentation of the data modeling power of object and semantic modeling concepts, particularly versions, with temporal modeling concepts; (d) the extension of an archetype extensible object database model to incorporate notions of time; and (e) the development of suitable user interfaces. Anticipated applications of these investigations are in engineering, business, medical information systems, scheduling, computer aided design and computer integrated manufacturing.
