The elements that MPEG-7 standardizes will support a broad a range of applications (for example, multimedia digital libraries, broadcast media selection, multimedia editing, home entertainment devices, etc.). MPEG-7 will also make the web as searchable for multimedia content as it is searchable for text today. This would apply especially to large content archives, which are being made accessible to the public, as well as to multimedia catalogues enabling people to identify content for purchase. The information used for content retrieval may also be used by agents, for the selection and filtering of broadcasted "push" material or for personalized advertising. Additionally, MPEG-7 descriptions will allow fast and cost-effective usage of the underlying data, by enabling semi-automatic multimedia presentation and editing. All domains making use of multimedia will benefit from MPEG-7 including,

• Digital libraries, Education (image catalogue, musical dictionary, Bio-medical imaging catalogues…)
• Multimedia editing (personalised electronic news service, media authoring)  Cultural services (history museums, art galleries, etc.),
• Multimedia directory services (e.g. yellow pages, Tourist information, Geographical information systems)

• Broadcast media selection (radio channel, TV channel,…)

• Journalism (e.g. searching speeches of a certain politician using his name, his voice or his face),

• E-Commerce (personalised advertising, on-line catalogues, directories of e-shops,…)
• Surveillance (traffic control, surface transportation, non-destructive testing in hostile environments, etc.),
• Investigation services (human characteristics recognition, forensics),
• Home Entertainment (systems for the management of personal multimedia collections, including manipulation of content, e.g. home video editing, searching a game, karaoke,…)
• Social (e.g. dating services),

Typical applications enabled by MPEG-7 technology include:

• Audio: I want to search for songs by humming or whistling a tune or, using an excerpt of Pavarotti’s voice, get a list of Pavarotti’s records and video clips in which Pavarotti sings or simply makes an appearance. Or, play a few notes on a keyboard and retrieve a list of musical pieces similar to the required tune, or images matching the notes in a certain way, e.g. in terms of emotions.

• Graphics: Sketch a few lines on a screen and get a set of images containing similar graphics, logos, and ideograms.

• Image: Define objects, including color patches or textures, and get examples from which you select items to compose your image. Or check if your company logo was advertised on a TV channel as contracted.

• Visual: Allow mobile phone access to video clips of goals scored in a soccer game, or automatically search and retrieve any unusual movements from surveillance videos.

• Multimedia: On a given set of multimedia objects, describe movements and relations between objects and so search for animations fulfilling the described temporal and spatial relations. Or, describe actions and get a list of scenarios containing such actions.

Examples of MPEG-7 Applications

The following applications are examples of the type of solutions that MPEG-7 can solve. These application examples represent development work in progress. There are many more applications being developed around the world, (see the MPEG-7 Industry Focus Group website, www.mpeg-7.com).

Content Retrieval using Image as the Query

Figure 3 shows possible ways to search for visual content using the inherent structural features of an image. In this example there are four image features detailed. The color histogram feature (1) of an image allows me to search for images that have the same color. Note, the position of the colors is not important but rather the amount of similar color in the image is important. The next feature, spatial color distribution (2) allows me to search for images where the location of the same color is important. You can see that the added object in the right-bottom flag does not affect this type of search. You can additionally search for images that have a similar edge or contour profile as in the spatial edge distribution (3) search technique. Note, color does not make a difference to this type of search. Finally, you can see an example of searching by object shape (4). Here, the color and edge profiles are not important.

Movie Tool

This is an MPEG-7 description tool for video with easy-to-use visual interface (see figure 5). It is possible to compose a logical structure of the target content, and to also edit and output an MPEG-7 instance file using this tool. Automatic segmentation of video content is done by detecting scene changes. Manual annotation is also possible to allow users provide additional information about the content. The content is arranged in a hierarchy based on topic and sub-topics where visual clips are summarized using thumbnails. In the ideal world, automatic description and organization of content is most desirable but the variety of possible meanings associated with semantic content make it a difficult task. This Movie Tool, though, helps speed up the manual annotation process because of its friendly visual interface environment. Currently, this tool operates on MPEG-1 input content. Since the logical structure of the content is mapped directly to its MPEG-7 instance in the editor, users can easily see the relationships between content and its related MPEG-7 description. This feature provides is very useful when trying to understand the usage of MPEG-7 description tools and their relationship to content.

MPEG-7 in the 21st Century Media Landscape

MPEG-7 is about the future of media in the 21st century. This is not an overstatement. MPEG-7 provides a comprehensive and flexible framework for describing the content of multimedia. To describe content implies knowledge of elements it consists of, as well as, knowledge of interrelations between those elements. The most straightforward application is multimedia management, where such knowledge is prerequisite for efficiency and accuracy. However, there are other serious implications. Knowledge of the structural features of multimedia information as well as its semantic features will help generate solutions that will provide more comprehensive and accurate indexing and search applications, (leading to greater ability for content manipulation, content reuse - and thus new content creation). Many issues, it is true, remain including copyrights issues and interoperability between applications and systems that wish to adhere to the MPEG-7 standard. But such issues are balanced by incredible economical, educational, and ergonomic benefits that will be brought by MPEG-7 technology. Potential concerns will be resolved, and after some years hence, we will not be able to imagine media without MPEG-7 technologies.

Advantages of MPEG-7

1. MPEG Standards have been Successful in the Marketplace.

MPEG standards, to date, have been extremely successful in the marketplace due to MPEG's unique process of sharing leading-edge technology while protecting intellectual property. MPEG-7 builds on the demonstrated success of this process.

2. Taking Advantage of MPEG-7 Expertise

The contributors to MPEG-7 include experts in every portion of the content value chain: production, post-production, delivery, and consumption. Through this process MPEG-7 has standardized description schemes for content description, management, and organization, as well as navigation, access, user preferences and usage history.

3. Data Exchange between Subsidiaries

MPEG-7 will enable the content management system at one subsidiary to leverage the content of another subsidiary. For example, AOL, CNN and Warner Bros could categorize, exchange, process and manage assets across boundaries or along an entire supply chain, e.g., from production house to advertising agency to CNN.

4. Market Potential for MPEG-7 Applications

According to a Goldman Sachs projection, the market for content management tools will grow from US$378Million in 2000 to US$4.5Billion by 2005. Interoperable tools sell better than non-interoperable tools. MPEG-7 is the gold standard for content management interoperability, not just entertainment companies - but every company, every industry, everywhere.

5. MPEG-7 will enable a New Generation of Multimedia Applications

MPEG-7 uniquely provides comprehensive standardised multimedia description tools for content. Descriptions for the catalogue level (e.g. title), the semantic level (who, what, when, where) and the structural level (spatio-temporal region, color histogram, timbre, texture) will provide tools for creative developers to generate new waves of multimedia applications. Standardized MPEG-7 description tools, then, are a key enabler of the following application domains:

-Search Engines, Digital Libraries, Broadcast Networks, Entertainment and News Distributors, Streaming Businesses

-Dynamic start-up companies, searching for cutting edge technologies.

-Governmental, Educational, Law, Medical & Remedial Services, and Non-profit organizations looking for digital media solutions. For example, the U.S. Library of Congress receives over 10,000 multimedia items each week, and is committed to

a) the long term preservation of these multimedia items in digital format, and

b) making much of their collection accessible to U.S. citizens in digital format.

-XML, Metadata, Modeling/Simulation, & Surveillance Industries

-AI Practitioners, Content Creators and Providers.

6. MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 Tools for Killer Applications

With MPEG-7's sister standard, MPEG-4, an ideal combination is made for solutions that require efficient streaming of content, content manipulation, and indexing and retrieval of that content. In particular mobile application developers have already begun to use these two standards and the trend is set to hugely increase as the demand for visual and audio information services continues to grow.

7. MPEG-7 Intellectual Property and Management Protection

"MPEG works closely with representatives of the creative industries to ensure that the best possible protection of the rights of stakeholders is maintained both in content and in metadata

8. MPEG-7 Makes Content More Valuable

Stored audio-visual content, gathered over the years, by broadcasters, libraries, and publishers becomes more valuable because, with MPEG-7 indexing technology, more comprehensive methods are available for users to access and retrieve more detailed descriptions of that content.

9. MPEG-7 provides a seamless path towards increasingly intelligent content management systems

We live in the age of convergence, from the level of production through to distribution and consumption. The technical hardware and communication infrastructure is evolving and will soon reach the point where computing and communications will become embedded in everyday objects and environments. Media will also then become ubiquitous. Ubiquitous media will create a huge demand for new content, and meeting this demand must involve fundamental changes to all stages of media production, management and delivery.

Media archives will become vast and interconnected pools of content, too large to be managed manually. Customization of content within programs, e.g. substitution of structural elements (characters, music, voices) according to viewer desires, content scaling for PDA, cell phones, will be not only possible, but easy and pleasant. MPEG-7 will enable the creation of tools, (through its structured combination of low level features and high-level meta-data), for coping with this "outbreak" of generic content.