ISO IEC 15938-4-2002 amd2-2006 PDF

Full title and description

Information technology — Multimedia content description interface — Part 4: Audio — Amendment 2: High-level descriptors (ISO/IEC 15938-4:2002/Amd 2:2006). This document is the second amendment to the 2002 edition of ISO/IEC 15938-4 (the MPEG‑7 audio part) and defines additions and corrections that introduce high-level audio descriptors and related description-scheme extensions to the MPEG‑7 audio tools.

Abstract

This amendment supplements ISO/IEC 15938-4:2002 by specifying a set of high-level audio descriptors and associated description schemes intended to improve semantic description of audio content. It provides formal definitions (using the MPEG‑7 Description Definition Language where applicable), illustrative examples and guidance for interoperable encoding of higher-level concepts such as musical features, instrumentation, semantic events, and other perceptual/semantic attributes. The amendment is intended to be used together with other MPEG‑7 parts (notably Part 2 — DDL and Part 5 — Multimedia Description Schemes).

General information

• Status: Published (Amendment to ISO/IEC 15938-4:2002).
• Publication date: Amendment 2 published 16 October 2006 (base Part 4 originally published June 2002).
• Publisher: ISO and IEC (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, MPEG).
• ICS / categories: 35.040.40 (Coding of audio, video and multimedia information).
• Edition / version: Edition 1 of ISO/IEC 15938-4:2002 with Amendment 2 (2006).
• Number of pages: Amendment 2: approximately 76 pages (base Part 4: approximately 106 pages).

Scope

The amendment extends the audio description tools of MPEG‑7 by adding high‑level descriptors that capture semantic and perceptual properties of audio content. Scope includes definition of new descriptor types and description schemes, formal DDL syntax where required, recommended usage notes and examples for encoding semantic concepts (for example: instruments and timbre-related descriptors, melody/tonal descriptors, tempo and rhythm, mood/genre labels, event/scene annotations, and speaker/voice characteristics). The amendment is normative for applications that declare conformance to the added descriptors and depends on Part 2 (DDL) and relevant multimedia description schemes in Part 5.

Key topics and requirements

• Introduction of high‑level audio descriptors for semantic and perceptual attributes (e.g., instrumentation, melodic content, genre/mood, events).
• Specification of new Description Schemes (DS) and Descriptors (D) in the MPEG‑7 DDL format or references to existing DSs.
• Normative syntactic definitions and data type constraints consistent with Part 2 (Description Definition Language).
• Guidance and examples showing how to instantiate the new descriptors within MPEG‑7 descriptions (XML examples and usage notes).
• Interoperability rules and conformance notes for implementers using the new high‑level descriptors.
• Cross‑references and dependencies to other MPEG‑7 parts (notably Part 2 and Part 5) and to existing audio descriptors defined in the base Part 4:2002.

Typical use and users

Typical users include metadata engineers, multimedia retrieval and search developers, digital-asset managers, broadcasters, music-information-retrieval researchers, audio archivists and software implementers who need standardized semantic descriptions of audio content. Use cases include automatic music indexing (genre, mood, instrumentation), searchable audio archives, content-based audio retrieval, music recommendation engines, broadcast monitoring, and annotation of multimedia databases for research and production workflows.

Related standards

ISO/IEC 15938 (MPEG‑7) family — especially: ISO/IEC 15938-1 (Systems), ISO/IEC 15938-2 (Description Definition Language), ISO/IEC 15938-3 (Visual), ISO/IEC 15938-5 (Multimedia Description Schemes), ISO/IEC 15938-6 (Reference Software), ISO/IEC 15938-7 (Conformance testing), ISO/IEC 15938-8 (Extraction and use of MPEG‑7 descriptions), ISO/IEC 15938-9/10/11/12 (profiles, schemas and query formats). This amendment also aligns conceptually with other multimedia metadata standards and with metadata/XML schema practices used in multimedia retrieval systems.

Keywords

MPEG‑7, ISO/IEC 15938-4, audio descriptors, high‑level descriptors, amendment 2, DDL, description schemes, multimedia metadata, music information retrieval, semantic audio.

FAQ

Q: What is this standard?

A: It is Amendment 2 (2006) to ISO/IEC 15938-4:2002 — the MPEG‑7 Part 4 audio specification — adding high‑level descriptors and related description‑scheme extensions for describing semantic and perceptual audio properties.

Q: What does it cover?

A: The amendment covers definition, syntax and usage guidance for new high‑level audio descriptors (for example instrumentation, melodic/tonal descriptors, tempo/rhythm attributes, mood/genre labels and event annotations), together with DDL/Description Scheme additions and examples to enable interoperable semantic audio descriptions.

Q: Who typically uses it?

A: Metadata authors, multimedia search and retrieval engineers, music information retrieval researchers, broadcasters, archivists and developers building systems that index, search or exchange semantic audio metadata.

Q: Is it current or superseded?

A: This entry documents Amendment 2 published 16 October 2006 to the 2002 edition of ISO/IEC 15938-4. The amendment is part of the published MPEG‑7 suite. Users should verify the present status or any later revisions or withdrawals with the official ISO/IEC publications or their national standards body when using the standard in production.

Q: Is it part of a series?

A: Yes — it is part of the ISO/IEC 15938 (MPEG‑7) family of standards. Part 4 is the audio part; other related parts cover systems, DDL, visual descriptors, multimedia description schemes, reference software, conformance testing, and supporting materials.

Q: What are the key keywords?

A: MPEG‑7, ISO/IEC 15938-4, audio, high‑level descriptors, metadata, description schemes, DDL, amendment 2006.