Fundamentals of uncertainty calculi with applications to fuzzy inference (Q1342729)

The objective of the book is to provide a rigorous background for calculus of uncertain information with a primary focus on fuzzy sets. The book comprises two parts. The first one, including Chapters 2-6 outlines the theoretical background. The second part of the material addresses various application-oriented issues. In more detail: Chapter 2 is devoted to modelling uncertainty. Different facets of uncertainty (imprecision, fuzziness, vagueness) and links between these concepts are highlighted. Chapter 3 exposes the reader to capacities of Choquet functionals and integrals. Information measures and their generalizations are discussed in Chapter 4. Basic calculus of fuzzy concepts (Chapter 5) includes generic ideas of mathematical modelling of fuzzy concepts, theory of triangular norms (\(t\)- and \(s\)-norms), approximate reasoning with fuzzy data including models of fuzzy multiplications, robustness of fuzzy logic. Finally approximate capabilities of fuzzy systems (fuzzy models viewed as universal approximators) are studied. The material on fuzzy measures and integrals is studied in Chapter 6. Proceeding with the basic definition, several extensions of these concepts are also proposed. In brief, fuzzy measures \(\mu\) are viewed as monotonic (rather than additive) measures defined on \((\Omega, {\mathcal F})\) (with \({\mathcal F}\) being a family of sets of \(\Omega\) containing \(\emptyset\) and \(\Omega\) and closed under the union of increasing chains \(F_ 1\subseteq F_ 2\subseteq \dots\)) such that \(\mu (\emptyset) =0\), \(\mu(A)\leq \mu(B)\) if \(A\subset B\), \(\lim_{n\to\infty} \mu(F_ n)= \mu(\lim_{n \to\infty} F_ n)\) for monotone increasing sequences of sets \(\{F_ n\}\). Starting from Chapter 7, the book is oriented towards various applications. First a general framework of decision-making is discussed (Chapter 7) whose main schemes are realized in the setting of fuzzy integrals. Chapter 8 includes a variety of problems arising in the realm of subjective multicriteria evaluation including such tasks as analysis of human reliability or design of speakers. Several schemes of pattern recognition, computer vision, and information fusion carried out within the framework of fuzzy integrals are studied in Chapter 9. The material is accompanied by an extensive bibliography. Definitely, the book is the most complete, fully updated, and comprehensive text on fuzzy measures and integrals.