Assessment Pattern

Unit(s) of Assessment	Weighting Towards Module Mark( %)
Coursework   ·          Students will carry out four time-limited online assessments that will involve applying and evaluating various concepts and principles introduced in lectures and tested in lab sessions. Text analysis software (System Quirk) and search engine software (Lucene) will be used to undertake necessary analysis for one or more of these assessments.   ·          Marks will be awarded for appropriate analysis of the multimedia data leading to the expected results, and the assessments will comprise a series of multiple choice and short answer questions.   ·          Submissions will be made through the VLE.   o	40%
Examination   2-hour written unseen examination comprising a mixture of short answer and discussion questions.	60%
Qualifying Condition(s)    A weighted aggregate mark of 40% is required to pass the module.

Module Overview

This module will provide students with an understanding of information retrieval as it relates to multimedia (text, image, video and audio data) on the web, covering fundamental techniques and strategies used in a variety of online applications and relating to personal media collections, organisation-wide media archives, web-search engines, and virtual worlds.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module students should be able to:   1.                    Apply appropriate techniques for analysing and modelling text documents   2.                    Explain theories behind search engine systems and assess their performance   3.                    Apply standard metadata sets to describe media items in an archive   4.                    Compare and use different kinds of metadata for image data   5.                    Explain, contrast and evaluate the modelling of information to support media access, especially retrieval and browsing, in a variety of applications - these include personal media collections, organisation-wide media archives, web-based search engines, and virtual worlds.   6.                    Distinguish and apply data models for temporal media (video/audio)   7.                    Describe video content in terms of objects, events and temporal relationships between events   8.                    Design and implement a synchronised multimedia presentation including a variety of media types and temporal relationships

Module Content

·          Modelling text data and keywords – inverted index, thesauri for query expansion, precision/recall   ·          Metadata for multimedia – e.g. the Dublin Core Metadata Set, MPEG-7·     ·          Key concepts: user information needs, modelling, media access functions – retrieval and browsing, multimedia content and different levels of abstraction·    ·          Current applications, including personal media collections, organisation-wide media archives, web-based search engines, and virtual worlds: considering exemplar applications such as Flickr, YouTube and Second Life.    ·          Modelling the content of images – content independent, content-dependent, content-descriptive metadata; case studies of image retrieval systems·     ·          Modelling the content of temporal media (video and audio) – data models with discrete, overlapping and hierarchical intervals; formal descriptions of objects, events and temporal relationships between events; the MPEG standards·     ·          Combining media items into synchronised presentations using the Synchronised Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL)·

The module will develop an understanding for the role of modelling multimedia information through:·    ·          Lectures, including case studies·     ·          Occasional set reading·     ·          In-class discussion   The module will develop practical skills through:·     ·          In-class and out-of-class exercises·     ·          Lab sessions·     ·          Coursework   Activities will be co-ordinated via the module webpage and through ULearn

No textbook recommended for purchase.      Sections of books will be given as Optional Reading and will be made available via the Library Article Collection service.      Further Optional Reading will be given from online resources, e.g. technical standards and academic journals.

08/09/2010 jg