Granular computing

Granular Computing is an emerging computing paradigm of information processing. It concerns processing of complex information entities called "Information Granules", which arise in the process -- called information granulation -- of abstraction of data and derivation of knowledge from information. Generally speaking, information granules are collection of entities, usually originating at the numeric level, that are arranged together due to their similarity, functional adjacency, indistinguishability, coherency or alike.

Although it is difficult to give a more precise and uncontroversial definition of Granular Computing, it could be described from several perspectives. Granular Computing can be conceived as a label of theories, methodologies, techniques and tools that make use of information granules in the process of problem solving. In this sense, Granular Computing is used as an umbrella term to cover these topics that have been studied in various fields in isolation. By examining existing studies in the unified framework of granular compuitng and extracting their commonalities, it could be able to develop a general theory for problem solving.

In a more philosophical perspective, Granular Computing can be intended as a way of thinking that relies on the human ability to perceive the real world under various levels of granularity, in order to abstract and consider only those things that serve a specific interest, and to switch among different granularities. By focusing on different levels of granularities, one can obtain different levels of knowledge, as well as inherent knowledge structure. Granular computing is thus essential in human problem solving, and hence has a very significant impact on the design and implementation of intelligent systems.

References

Bargiela, A. and Pedrycz, W. (2003) Granular Computing. An introduction, Kluwer Academic Publishers

Zadeh, L.A. (1997) "Toward a Theory of Fuzzy Information Granulation and its Centrality in Human Reasoning and Fuzzy Logic", Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 90:111-127

Yao, Y.Y. (2004) "A Partition Model of Granular Computing", Lecture Notes in Computer Science (to appear)