Multimedia presentation refers to the concurrent presentation of multimedia data using monitors for text, video or still images, and speakers for audio. Each presentation contains multimedia segments retrieved from a database and is constructed and played out by a presentation manager software. For novice users of multimedia databases, general-purpose techniques and methodologies are developed for automated assembly of semantically coherent presentations from multimedia databases. These techniques are extended into automated assembly of presentations from electronic books and electronic classroom lectures and notes. For intermediate users, a graphical interface is developed for constructing concurrent presentations. Such an interface (i) provides control on the number and contents of concurrent presentation streams, (ii) has the ability to specify dynamic (i.e., playout-time) changes in a presentation order, and (iii) allows playout-time communication and synchronization among multiple concurrent presentation streams. For advanced users, graph-based query and update languages for advanced users, tailored specifically for retrieving and manipulating presentation objects, are developed. A multimedia database system is developed, populated, and experimentally evaluated. The system has an Automated-Presentation-Assembler, a graphical interface for presentation manipulation, and a presentation query and manipulation language. The system will contribute to our understanding of software tools for using digital libraries.
