Registry

Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2009 - 2010
This information is provisional and subject to change.

Module Title	Multimedia Information Retrieval
Module Code	CA437
School	Computing
Online Module Resources
Module Co-ordinator	Dr Gareth Jones	Office Number	L2.01D
Level	4	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None

Module Aims

The aim of this module is to present the student with an overview and an understanding of how content-based information retrieval operations, work. The module covers content-based operations such as indexing, retrieval, filtering, summarisation,and information extraction and is applied to text, image, spoken audio and digital video information. The module includes coverage of these topics as they are applied to the WWW.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, the student will be able to 7 Demonstrate a clear understanding of the principles underlying information retrieval systems. (PO1) 7 Apply information retrieval techniques to a range of applied problems. (PO1, PO2) 7 Interpret an information retrieval system requirement, and design a suitable solution system. (PO1, PO2, PO3) 7 Describe and justify a plan for implementation and testing of designed solution (PO5, PO6)

Indicative Time Allowances
	Hours
Lectures	24
Tutorials	0
Laboratories	0
Seminars	0
Independent Learning Time	51

Total	75
Placements
Assignments

NOTE

Assume that a 5 credit module load represents approximately 75 hours' work, which includes all teaching, in-course assignments, laboratory work or other specialised training and an estimated private learning time associated with the module.

Indicative Syllabus

Basic information retrieval operations covering indexing, retrieval, filtering, clustering,summarisation, abstraction INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ON TEXT Retrieval using metadata including SGML, XML, XSL, HTML, Dublin Core, the Warwick Framework Conventional approaches to IR, stemming and stopwords, inverted files, term weighting, term weighting models, ranking, relevance feedback, query expansion INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ON IMAGES Indexing images by colour histograms, by texture, by shape Indexing images by recognised objects INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ON DIGITAL AUDIO: Speech recognition and indexing by words, by phones Retrieval vs. browsing in digital audio Example audio retrieval systems INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ON DIGITAL VIDEO: Shot boundary detection techniques Keyframe identification and extraction Indexing shots and indexing scenes Browsing systems for digital audio, browsing digital TV ENGINEERING INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS Distributed and networked based information retrieval Scaling to very large retrieval systems Digital Libraries

Assessment
Continuous Assessment	25%	Examination Weight	75%

Indicative Reading List

Essential Modern Information Retrieval (Edition 1st), R Baeza-Yates and B Ribeiro-Neto, Addison Wesley Longman Higher Education, 1999 ISBN: 0201-139829X Supplementary

Contribution to Programme Areas:

Science & Mathematics

Discipline - specific Technology

Information and Communications Technology

Design and Development

Engineering Practice

Social and Business Context

3

4

3

4

2

0

Contribution to Programme Outcomes:

Knowledge and Its Application:

The ability to derive and apply solutions from a knowledge of sciences, engineering sciences, technology and mathematics

Problem Solving:

The ability to identify, formulate, analyse and solve engineering problems;

Design:

The ability to design a system, component or process to meet specified needs, to design and conduct experiments and to analyse and interpret data;

Ethical Practice:

An understanding of the need for high ethical standards in the practice of engineering, including the responsibilities of the engineering profession towards people and the environment

Effective Work and Learning:

The ability to work effectively as an individual, in teams and in multidisciplinary settings together with the capacity to undertake lifelong learning;

Effective Communication:

The ability to communicate effectively with the engineering community and with society at large

3

3

3

1

2

3

Teaching & Learning Strategies/Assessment Methodology:

The fundamental principles of information retrieval are assessed within a standard written examination. The examination also assesses candidates’ ability to apply information retrieval methods in short applied scenarios. Candidates submit a written continuous assessment addressing a novel system requirement for a information retrieval system. This should address a system combining together multiple topic areas from the module, and not be currently available as a commercial product. Candidates are asked to provide technical background with formal technical citations, a proposed system specification with justification of design choices, and details of an evaluation strategy to test their system. The final examination contributes 75% and the continuous assessment 25%.