Overview
ISO/IEC TR 15938-11:2005/Amd 1:2012 is an amendment to Part 11 of the MPEG-7 profile schemas that introduces the Audiovisual Description Profile (AVDP) schema. Published by ISO/IEC, this Technical Report extends MPEG-7’s multimedia content description interface with an XML Schema (XSD) definition tailored for audiovisual metadata. The amendment documents schema components, datatypes and structured description tools used to encode visual, audio and temporal metadata for audiovisual content.
Key topics and technical content
- MPEG-7 profile schemas (AVDP): Provides an XSD-based profile that maps MPEG-7 description tools into an XML Schema target namespace (urn:mpeg:mpeg7:schema:2004).
- XML Schema integration: Imports standard XML namespace components and declares element/attribute form defaults to support interoperable XML metadata.
- Datatypes & patterns: Defines MPEG-7 datatype extensions such as time points and durations (string patterns for basicTimePointType and basicDurationType), numeric vector lists, and constrained simple types.
- Visual descriptor types: Includes complexTypes for common visual descriptors and models - for example GridLayoutType, VisualTimeSeries types (regular and irregular), and DominantColorType and ScalableColorType for color descriptors.
- Spatial and temporal models: Defines spatial coordinate system headers (Spatial2DCoordinateSystemType) and temporal interpolation constructs (TemporalInterpolationType) to represent motion, coordinate mapping and time-varying descriptors.
- Enumeration and constrained attributes: Uses enumerations and restricted types (color spaces, model types, quantization components) to standardize descriptor values and ensure consistent encoding.
- Extensibility & references: Indicates dependencies on other MPEG-7 parts (ISO/IEC 15938-1 through -5) and positions the schema as an MPEG-7-specific extension of XML Schema defined in ISO/IEC 15938-2.
Practical applications
- Metadata authoring and exchange for media asset management, digital archives and broadcast systems.
- Content-based indexing and retrieval: standardized descriptors enable search engines, recommendation systems and content discovery tools to match audiovisual features.
- Automated annotation and analysis pipelines in research or production workflows (computer vision, audio analysis).
- Interoperability between tools that consume/create MPEG-7 metadata, such as transcoding utilities, media catalogs and interoperability testbeds.
Who should use this standard
- Multimedia metadata designers and XML schema authors implementing MPEG-7 profiles.
- Software developers building content indexing, search and retrieval systems.
- Broadcasters, digital libraries, archives and enterprises managing large audiovisual collections.
- Researchers and vendors developing content-analysis, annotation or media-asset-management solutions.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 15938-1, -2, -3, -4, -5 (referenced within the amendment) - core MPEG-7 parts covering systems, DDL/XML Schema extensions, visual, audio and MDS description tools.
Keywords: MPEG-7, AVDP, audiovisual description profile, ISO/IEC TR 15938-11, XML Schema, multimedia metadata, audiovisual metadata standards, MPEG-7 profile schemas, metadata interoperability.