This paper proposes the “poly-aspect data model,” which is an extension of the object-oriented data model. The purpose of the poly-aspect data model is to represent in a natural way the multimedia data in the database. One of the features of the multimedia data is the diversified representation of the entities of the real world. In the poly-aspect data model, the entity is interpreted as an object, and a model is provided so that multiple complete representations are given to the object. Such an object is called the poly-aspect object. In the poly-aspect data model, an object may have more than one instance as its representation. The class defines the format of the instance. The multiple instance of the same object are distinguished by the class names. When the attributes of multiple instances are defined by the same superclass, those attributes are interpreted to have the same semantics. The same value is shared among the instances, and the consistency is retained.
As a realization example of the poly-aspect object, the architecture of the “Sarah” database management system, which is currently being constructed experimentally is described.
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