The emerging information superhighway will bring to homes and businesses the ability to access and manipulate a vast amount of information stored in a variety of forms in different databases. Multimedia systems facilitate the access and manipulation of such information across high-speed networks. Multimedia database systems are a new generation of database systems that will provide a unified and interactive framework for users to request and integrate information stored in a variety of media. Applications of such systems in scientific research, commercial and business activities (such as interactive TV systems for marketing, banking, entertainment, manufacturing, and design), law enforcement, and military operations are numerous and obvious. This book presents basic research establishing the theory and practice of multimedia databasae systems. Issues relating to the theory of such systems, query languages for multimedia databases, indexing structures, implementations of such systems, and industrial and government applications are addressed. The book will form a valuable text for advanced courses in Multimedia Database Systems.