Unit 4 : Distributed and Multimedia IR

Q) DIR and its Architecture ?

• DIR is a subarea of research of Information Retrieval.

• A DIR system is an IR system that is designed to search for information that
is distributed across different resources.
• Using the distributed information retrieval (DIR) model a user can access
multiple databases that are distributed across multiple places
• DIR also known as federated information retrieval and federated search.
• There are restrictions on what search engine can find on Internet. For
example, not everything on the Internet is extractable and a web search
engine's.
• Frequently, there are various types of responses to the same query. Thus,
the need for deep web Federated search, metasearch and aggregate
search required.

• It is also called as Federated information retrieval.

• The federator gathers result from one or more search engines and then
present all of the results in a single user terminal.
• It is preferable because it reduces the time and efforts required, increases
searchability and productivity.

ARCHITECTURE OF DIR :

• Distributed IR architecture enables user to simultaneously search

various document collections.
• Connection server connects a group of clients to group of IR systems, so
that communication between clients and IR system is handled by
connection server.
• Distributed systems typically consist of a set of server processes, each
running on a separate processing node, and a designated broker process
for accepting client requests, distributing the requests to the servers,
collecting intermediate results from the servers, and combining the
intermediate into a final result for the client.
• This setup allows forimproved scalability, fault tolerance, and
performance.
COLLECTION PARTITIONING :

• Collection partitioning refers to the practice of dividing a large dataset or

collection into smaller, more manageable segments or partitions.
• Each partition can be processed independently, which can lead to better
resource utilization and faster data access.
• This is often done to improve performance, scalability, and ease of
maintenance.
• It's commonly used in databases, distributed systems, and parallel
processing environments.

Strategies for Collection Partitioning:

1. Hash-Based Partitioning: Documents are hashed using a function that maps

them to different nodes based on their hash value. This ensures an even
distribution of documents across nodes but may lead to uneven query
distribution if certain documents are more frequently accessed.
2. Range-Based Partitioning: Documents are partitioned based on a specified
range of document identifiers, such as document IDs or timestamps. For
example, one node might handle documents with IDs 1-1000, while another
manages IDs 1001-2000.
3. Key-Based Partitioning: Documents are partitioned based on specific
attributes or keys, such as topic, author, or category. This strategy allows for
more targeted retrieval based on these attributes but requires careful design
to avoid overloading specific nodes.

# Partitioning of Collections in a Decentralized System:

• It involves distributing data across multiple nodes or devices without

relying on a central server
• It's done for scalability, fault tolerance, and load balancing.
• Challenges include synchronization andhandling node failure.
 Partitioning of Collections in a Centralized System :

• it involves dividing a dataset or collection into smaller subsets within

a single, central server or database.
• it's done to improve query performance, manageability, and data
organization.
• Challenges include data consistency and potential load imbalances.

Q) ISSUES IN DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL :

• Resource description:
Each text database's contents must be explained.
• Resource selection:
Choosing which database(s) to search requires consideration of an
information demand and a list of resource descriptions.
• MergingResults:
Combining the ranked lists that each database returned to create a single,
cohesive ranked list. it is also more complicated than the information
retrieval model using a single database.
• Fault Tolerance and Reliability:
Node Failures: Dealing with failures of nodes or network partitions without
compromising the system's availability and reliability.
Data Replication: Strategies for replicating data across nodes to ensure
redundancy and fault tolerance.
 • Heterogeneity:
Diverse Data Formats: Different nodes might store data in various formats
or structures, making it challenging to uniformly process and retrieve
information
• Scalability:
Volume of Data: As the amount of data increases, managing indices and
query processing across distributed nodes becomes more complex.
Scalability is crucial to handle growing data volumes efficiently.

# DATA MODELING (MULTOS MODEL) :

• MULTOS (Multimedia Filing System) is a database system for storing,

retrieving, and managing multimedia content like images, videos, audio,
and text.
• It supports content-based retrieval, multimodal indexing, and offers user-
friendly interfaces.
• The aim of the multimedia filing system (MULTOS) was to develop an
efficient and cost effective system for filing and retrieving multimedia
documents in the office environment.
• The MULTOS system is based on a client/server architecture.
• The user interacts with the system through the client subsystem, which
provides a user friendly interface for document preparation, document
acquisition, query formulation, document display and printing. The
requests are issued to the server.
• There are 2 types of document servers, related to 2 groups of documents
with different retrieval requirements i.e Dynamic and Archive Servers.
 • In the dynamic server, the documents can be updated and frequently
accessed. Document filing in the dynamic server is done using magnetic
storage.
• In the archive server, the documents are stable and less frequently
accessed. The archive server integrates magnetic and WORM optical disks.
• Documents created or acquired in the Client environment can be classified
either manually or automatically.
• The classification allows parts of the document to be associated with
conceptual components for use in retrieving the documents.

Q) Query Processing ? From textbook ?

Q) Gemini Algorithm ?

• It is framework used to index and organize multimedia data in a way that

enables efficient retrieval and analysis.
• The main objective of multimedia indexing is to efficiently support
multimedia similarity search, which is the basis of the majority of
multimedia applications.
• Steps on page…
•

Q) Automatic Feature Extraction ?

Automatic feature extraction refers to the process of identifying and extracting

relevant and meaningful patterns or descriptors from raw data without human
intervention. In various fields, including image processing, natural language
processing, signal processing, and machine learning, automatic feature
extraction plays a crucial role in uncovering informative representations that
facilitate subsequent analysis, classification, or decision-making tasks. Here's a
detailed explanation:

1. Purpose of Feature Extraction:

• Dimensionality Reduction: It aims to reduce the complexity of data by

transforming it into a more manageable and meaningful representation,
especially in high-dimensional datasets.

• Information Compression: Feature extraction helps in summarizing the

essential information contained within the data while discarding
redundant or less informative aspects.

2. Working Mechanism:

• Data Representation: Automatic feature extraction algorithms analyze the

input data, which could be images, text, signals, or any
structured/unstructured data.

• Feature Identification: These algorithms identify patterns, structures, or

characteristics within the data that are relevant for the task at hand. For
instance, in image processing, features might include edges, textures,
shapes, or color histograms.

• Transformation: The identified patterns or characteristics are transformed

into a new set of features that best represent the original data. This
transformation might involve mathematical operations, filters, statistical
analysis, or other techniques.

3. Techniques for Automatic Feature Extraction:

 • Filtering Methods: Techniques that directly apply filters or transformations
to the data to extract specific features. For instance, edge detection filters
in image processing.

• Dimensionality Reduction Algorithms: Methods like Principal Component

Analysis (PCA), t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), or
Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) reduce the data to a lower-dimensional
space while preserving relevant information.

• Deep Learning Approaches: Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs),

Autoencoders, and other deep learning architectures learn hierarchical
representations by automatically extracting features from raw data.

4. Domains and Applications:

• Image Processing: Detecting edges, textures, shapes, or object features in

images.

• Natural Language Processing: Extracting linguistic features, such as word

embeddings, syntactic patterns, or semantic representations from text.

• Signal Processing: Identifying frequency components, time-domain

characteristics, or spectral features from signals (audio, video, sensor
data).

5. Advantages and Considerations:

• Advantages: Enables the extraction of relevant and discriminative

information, aiding in better data understanding and subsequent analysis
or modeling.

• Considerations: The choice of feature extraction technique depends on the

nature of data, the problem at hand, and the desired properties of
 extracted features. It requires careful consideration of computational
complexity, data type, and the context of the application.

Automatic feature extraction is pivotal in transforming raw data into meaningful

and informative representations, enabling efficient analysis, modeling, and
decision-making in various domains and applications.