Fundamentals of statistics with fuzzy data. (Q819936)

In the last decades many studies have been devoted to model imprecisely-valued experimental data by means of the concept of fuzzy sets introduced by \textit{L. A. Zadeh} [Inf. Control 8, 338--353 (1965; Zbl 0139.24606)]. The authors of this book present an approach to deal with this type of data from both probabilistic and statistical perspectives. The approach is based on the notion of fuzzy set-valued random elements. After recalling the preliminaries and the key notions, some probabilistic developments (mainly those concerning convergence results) are presented. Furthermore, an introductory approach to the statistical treatment of fuzzy data is stated. Several examples are also considered to illustrate this treatment. The book offers a view on the statistical analysis of fuzzy data, but it should be pointed out that this view is not thorough. In this respect, one can miss references to other significant developments and approaches in the literature on the probabilistic/statistical management of fuzzy data, namely: those based on the notion of fuzzy random variables (or fuzzy set-valued random elements) as introduced by \textit{R. Kruse} and \textit{K. D. Meyer} [Statistics with vague data (1987; Zbl 0663.62010)] and by \textit{M. L. Puri} and \textit{D. A. Ralescu} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 114, 409--422 (1986; Zbl 0592.60004)] considering a possibilistic setting rather than a probabilistic one, and so on. For purposes of complementing the view in this book, readers can be referred, for instance, to two recent issues of the journals Computational Statistics and Data Analysis 51, issue 1 (2006) and Fuzzy Sets and Systems 157, issue 19 (2006).