GMD Spin-off Globit develops Informix DataBlade Modules
by Marlies Ockenfeld
Globit, a spin-off company of GMD developed three new Informix Universal
Server based DataBlades. Using these tools, users will be able to explore
large amounts of possibly complex structured multi-media data objects in
an intuitive and cognitively efficient way by using a web browser.
The new DataBlade modules generate an hypertext markup language-based
information catalog environment, are able to store and access digital video
streams in motion picture expert group-1 (MPEG-1) format and generate virtual
reality scenes in virtual reality modelling language (VRML) format for
the Web-based visualization of searches in large databases. The modules
are the Information Catalog Environment (ICE), the MPEG-1 and the VMRL
DataBlade modules for the Informix Universal Server. By combining this
user interface technology with the Informix Universal Server, system administrators
are enabled to easily adapt cognitive efficient information system user-interfaces
to their database systems and application areas. Their respective end-users
will be able to use the information system in a plug and play fashion and
the consistency of the displayed information with the database content
will be automatically ensured at all times.
The ICE DataBlade module provides automatic support for multidimensional
and hierarchical navigation within Web-based user-interfaces. It enables
administrators to easily create HTML-based user-interfaces for end-users.
These incorporate an automatic generated multi-dimensional navigation system
for providing a variety of different views into operational database contents.
ICE manages all available documents on a Web-server and provides them to
the user via a multidimensional and hierarchical menu system with an active
context management. End-users constantly receive visual feedback about
the current state of their personal search context. In this way, they can
easily keep their orientation within the overall content space of the database
and the navigational space of the Web user-interface.
MPEG (ISO/IEC 11172) is the international standard for the coding and
compression of video and associated audio signals. It provides compression
ratios up to 100:1 without noticeable artifacts. Globit's MPEG DataBlade
parses an MPEG stream and its internal structure into an Universal Server
driven database. The MPEG-DataBlade module will provide methods for fast
structure-oriented random access to all information streams in the MPEG
source. Therefore, the MPEG DataBlade is the ideal basis for digital video
archiving, retrieval,and processing applications. Future extensions of
the DataBlade will also include the generation and manipulation of MPEG
files as well as support for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.
The VMRL DataBlade module is a virtual reality scene generator for the
hierarchical and multidimensional exploration of large structured data
sets. Visual query systems enable even unexperienced users to formulate
complex queries against highly stuctured data collections. The solution
choosen by Globit with the VMRL DataBlade modul is the adoption of 3D display
methods for perspective visualization. Thus end-users are provided with
an overview visualization and are, at the same time, enabled to focus on
a smaller part of the data set in more detail. The 3D virtual scenario
is composed of atomar virtual world objects, which are stored in a VRML
repository. This repository contains the models of these objects, eg rooms,
chairs, tables, portrait cases, as well as descriptions of their visual
properties and their expressiveness with respect to visualizing different
data types and structures.
"For the first time simple data access, acquisition of new data
as well as maintenance of complex multimedia databases can be realized
in a user-oriented way." stated Matthias Hemmje, CEO of Globit. "By
taking advantage of the unique solution of user-interface integration into
the Informix DataBlades, we are giving our customers and partners complete
quality control over the presentation of their data within end-user oriented
applications."
More information about Globit is available via the World Wide Web at
http://www.globit.com and http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/IPSI
Please contact:
Matthias Hemmje - Globit
Tel: +49 6151 869 844
E-mail: hemmje@globit.com
