On the usefulness of fuzzy sets in data mining

Abstract

Tools and techniques that have been developed during the last 40 years in the field of fuzzy set theory (FST) have been applied quite successfully in a variety of application areas. A prominent example of the practical usefulness of corresponding techniques is fuzzy control [21]. Yet, fuzzy tools and fuzzy extensions of existing methods have also been used and developed in many other fields, ranging from research areas like approximate reasoning over optimization and decision support to concrete applications like image processing, robotics, and bioinformatics, just to name a few. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.