DMAS:A Display Measurement and Analysis System with an object-oriented database

Abstract

Current commercial measurement systems are used primarily for performing measurements and recording data. Measurement users either expend extra effort to store and maintain other measurement information (metadata) or to customize the measurement system to make it functionally complete. A software measurement environment using advanced data management techniques in an open architecture seems highly desirable. To create such an environment, a Display Measurement and Analysis System (DMAS) was designed and constructed using the object-oriented paradigm and object-oriented database (OODB) management techniques. The purpose of the system is to serve as a testbed for new generation measurement systems and for overcoming the limitations of conventional systems.

This thesis proposes a new object data model for display measurement and analysis applications. The components of this data model are object classes. The generation of the data model involved four steps, dealing with: objects and classes at given level of abstractions, semantics, and relationships. A prototype system based on the above model has been developed. It used an object data management system as the support of persistent object storage. The development of DMAS database management subsystem consists of construction of an object schema and an object management interface. The research work illustrates that the OODB approach facilitates scientific measurement by capturing metadata and data together explicitly and flexibly. Furthermore, it show thats OODB has the ability to represent complex semantics, to associate objects with metadata, and to map a lucid interface easily to objects.