Preface to the special issue on Content-Based Multimedia Indexing

Content-Based Multimedia Indexing (CBMI) is the multi-disciplinary field broadly aiming at extracting knowledge from multimedia information and providing fluent access to it. CBMI research proposes to develop methods to model, abstract and organise multimedia data in view of fast, effective and accurate access. CBMI covers all the chain from the data to the user. It encompasses a large variety of challenges from multimedia information capture and representation via content understanding and information fusion to effective information indexing and retrieval. Since the early days, CBMI research has therefore produced a wide range of fundamental and application-oriented contributions and has provided methodological guidelines for progressing in the field. Due to its multi-disciplinary nature, CBMI research has also strongly been impacted by progress in adjunct domains such as machine learning, large-scale information storage and processing, and new modes of user interaction. The International Workshop on Content-based Multimedia Indexing has been established as one of the most important forums for the presentation of the newest ideas and original research results in the field. Following the eight successful previous events of CBMI (Toulouse 1999, Brescia 2001, Rennes 2003, Riga 2005, Bordeaux 2007, London 2008, Chania 2009, Grenoble 2010 and Madrid 2011), CBMI 2012, the 10th edition of the workshop was organised by the LISTIC lab of the University of Savoie, in Annecy, France from June 27th to 29th, 2012. CBMI 2012 brought together