MPEG-21 closes this gap by building the infrastructure for a distributed multimedia framework, allowing for the creation, modification, viewing, and communication of digital items among all participants in the MPEG-21 agreement. Distributed Multimedia Database Technologies Supported by MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 describes the technologies, concepts, and tools for distributed, multimedia-based content system. This book shows an open distributed multimedia framework that enables these components to cooperate in the work environment, providing a rich multimedia access in increasingly mobile world.About AuthorHarald Kosch is a professor at the University of Klagenfurt. His domain of interest are distributed multimedia systems, multimedia databases, middleware, and Internet applications. He actively participated in the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) -7 and MPEG-21 standardization and is involved in several international research projects in the domain of distributed multimedia systems.