Multiobjective improved spatial fuzzy c-means clustering for image segmentation combining Pareto-optimal clusters

In this paper, we propose a grayscale image segmentation method based on a multiobjective optimization approach that optimizes two complementary criteria (region and edge based). The region-based fitness used is the improved spatial fuzzy c-means clustering measure that is shown performing better than the standard fuzzy c-means (FCM) measure. The edge-based fitness used is based on the contour statistics and the number of connected components in the image segmentation result. The optimization algorithm used is the multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO), which is well suited to handle continuous variables problems, the case of FCM clustering. In our case, each particle of the swarm codes the centers of clusters. The result of the multiobjective optimization technique is a set of Pareto-optimal solutions, where each solution represents a segmentation result. Instead of selecting one solution from the Pareto front, we propose a method that combines all solutions to get a better segmentation. The combination method takes place in two steps. The first step is the detection of high-confidence points by exploiting the similarity between the results and the membership degrees. The second step is the classification of the remaining points by using the high-confidence extracted points. The proposed method was evaluated on three types of images: synthetic images, simulated MRI brain images and real-world MRI brain images. This method was compared to the most widely used FCM-based algorithms of the literature. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.     

Unsupervised construction of fuzzy measures through self-organizing feature maps and its application in color image segmentation

The paper presents a framework for the segmentation of multi-dimensional images, e.g., color, satellite, multi-sensory images, based on the employment of the fuzzy integral, which undertakes the classification of the input features. The framework makes use of a self-organizing feature map, whereby the coefficients of the fuzzy measure are determined. This process is unsupervised and therefore constitutes one of the main contributions of the paper.The performance of the framework is shown by successfully realizing the segmentation of color images in two different applications. First, the features of the framework and its parameterization are analyzed by segmenting different images used as benchmark in image processing. Finally, the framework is applied in the segmentation of different images taken under difficult illumination conditions. The images serve the development of an automated cashier system, where the weak segmentation constitutes the first step for the identification of different market items. The presented framework succeeds in the segmentation of all these color images.     

Automatic detection of peculiar galaxies in large datasets of galaxy images

We propose an image analysis unsupervised learning algorithm that can detect peculiar galaxies in datasets of galaxy images. The algorithm first computes a large set of calculated characteristics reflecting different aspects of the visual content, and then weighs them based on the σ of the values computed from the galaxy images. The weighted Euclidean distance of each galaxy image from the median is measured, and the peculiarity of each galaxy is determined based on that distance. Experimental results using irregular galaxy images show that the method can effectively detect peculiar galaxies. Code and data used in the experiments are freely available.     

Twofold fuzzy sets and rough sets—Some issues in knowledge representation

This paper deals with the representation of sets where the membership of some elements may be ill-known rather than just a matter of degree as in a fuzzy set. The notion of a twofold fuzzy set is introduced when the relevant information for determining the membership status is incomplete. A twofold fuzzy set is made of a nested pair of fuzzy sets: the one which gathers the elements which more or less necessarily belong and the one which gathers the elements which more or less possibly belong. Twofold fuzzy sets are compared from a frontal and from a semantical point of view with other proposals and particularly with the notion of a rough set recently introduced by Pawlak. Set operations of twofold fuzzy sets are discussed and the cardinality of a twofold fuzzy set is defined. Twofold fuzzy relations are also introduced. Finally, various applications of twofold fuzzy sets in knowledge representation are briefly discussed.     

Fuzzy measures for color image retrieval

In this paper we present a scheme for fuzzy similarity based strategy to retrieve an image from a library of color images. Color features are among the most important features used in image database retrieval. Due to its compact representation and low complexity, direct histogram comparison is the most commonly used technique in measuring color similarity of images. A gamma membership function, derived from the Gamma distribution, has been proposed to find the membership values of the gray levels of the histogram. We present here an image retrieval scheme with some popular vector fuzzy distance measures using a gamma membership function for finding the membership values of the gray levels and evaluate the matching function to select the appropriate retrieval mechanism.     

Piecewise parametric polynomial fuzzy sets

We present a scheme for tractable parametric representation of fuzzy set membership functions based on the use of a recursive monotonic hierarchy that yields different polynomial functions with different orders. Polynomials of the first order were found to be simple bivalent sets, while the second order polynomials represent the typical saw shape triangles. Higher order polynomials present more diverse membership shapes. The approach demonstrates an enhanced method to manage and fit the profile of membership functions through the access to the polynomials order, the number and the multiplicity of anchor points as wells as the uniformity and periodicity features used in the approach. These parameters provide an interesting means to assist in fitting a fuzzy controller according to system requirements. Besides, the polynomial fuzzy sets have tractable characteristics concerning the continuity and differentiability that depend on the order of the polynomials. Higher order polynomials can be differentiated as many times as the order of the polynomial less the multiplicity of the anchor points. An algorithmic optimization approach using the steepest descent method is introduced for fuzzy controller tuning. It was shown that the controller can be optimized to model a certain output within small number of iterations and very small error margins. The mathematics generated by the approach is consistent and can be simply generalized to standard applications. The recursive propagation was noticed for its clarity and ease of calculations. Further, the degree of association between the sets is not limited to the neighbors as in traditional applications; instead, it may extend beyond.Such approach can be useful in dynamic fuzzy sets for adaptive modeling in view of the fact that the shape parameters can be easily altered to get different profiles while keeping the math unchanged. Hypothetically, any shape of membership functions under the partition of unity constraint can be produced. The significance of the mentioned characteristics of such modeling can be observed in the field of combinatorial and continuous parameter optimization, automated tuning, optimal fuzzy control, fuzzy-neural control, membership function fitting, adaptive modeling, and many other fields that require customized as well as standard fuzzy membership functions. Experimental work of different scenarios with diverse fuzzy rules and polynomial sets has been conducted to verify and validate our results.     

A fuzzy rule-based system for handwritten Chinese characters recognition based on radical extraction

In this paper, a fuzzy rule-based system for handwritten Chinese characters recognition (HCCR) based on radical extraction is proposed. Since the writings of handwritten Chinese characters vary a lot, we adopt fuzzy set theory to deal with the recognition of these fuzzy patterns. Candidates of strokes are provided with confidence values to obtain more reliable and accurate results. Furthermore, hierarchical fuzzy rule sets that represent the character structures are used to combine the extracted strokes into compound strokes or radicals. The flexible expansion ability thus provided is very promising. Also, since the number of rules in a fuzzy system is much less than that in a general rule-based system, the computation effort is not difficult. An average of 99.63% recognition rate of 542 test categories that are selected from the 100th sample set of HCCRBASE (character image database provided by CCL, ITRI, Taiwan) is obtained. The experimental results not only verify the feasibility of the proposed system, but also suggest that applying fuzzy set theory to HCCR is an efficient and promising approach.     

Interpretability assessment of fuzzy knowledge bases: A cointension based approach

Computing with words (CWW) relies on linguistic representation of knowledge that is processed by operating at the semantical level defined through fuzzy sets. Linguistic representation of knowledge is a major issue when fuzzy rule based models are acquired from data by some form of empirical learning. Indeed, these models are often requested to exhibit interpretability, which is normally evaluated in terms of structural features, such as rule complexity, properties on fuzzy sets and partitions. In this paper we propose a different approach for evaluating interpretability that is based on the notion of cointension. The interpretability of a fuzzy rule-based model is measured in terms of cointension degree between the explicit semantics, defined by the formal parameter settings of the model, and the implicit semantics conveyed to the reader by the linguistic representation of knowledge. Implicit semantics calls for a representation of user’s knowledge which is difficult to externalise. Nevertheless, we identify a set of properties - which we call “logical view” - that is expected to hold in the implicit semantics and is used in our approach to evaluate the cointension between explicit and implicit semantics. In practice, a new fuzzy rule base is obtained by minimising the fuzzy rule base through logical properties. Semantic comparison is made by evaluating the performances of the two rule bases, which are supposed to be similar when the two semantics are almost equivalent. If this is the case, we deduce that the logical view is applicable to the model, which can be tagged as interpretable from the cointension viewpoint. These ideas are then used to define a strategy for assessing interpretability of fuzzy rule-based classifiers (FRBCs). The strategy has been evaluated on a set of pre-existent FRBCs, acquired by different learning processes from a well-known benchmark dataset. Our analysis highlighted that some of them are not cointensive with user’s knowledge, hence their linguistic representation is not appropriate, even though they can be tagged as interpretable from a structural point of view.     

Rough fuzzy set based scale space transforms and their use in image analysis

In this paper we present a multi-scale method based on the hybrid notion of rough fuzzy sets, coming from the combination of two models of uncertainty like vagueness by handling rough sets and coarseness by handling fuzzy sets. Marrying both notions lead to consider, as instance, approximation of sets by means of similarity relations or fuzzy partitions. The most important features are extracted from the scale spaces by unsupervised cluster analysis, to successfully tackle image processing tasks. Here, we report some results achieved by applying the method to multi-class image segmentation and edge detection, but it can be shown to be successfully applied to texture discrimination problem too.     

模糊综合评判在高校排课系统评价中的应用

模糊综合评判是一种应用广泛的模糊数学方法,是在综合考虑和整体平衡中顾及各种因素全面进行评判的科学方法,可广泛应用在各类人员、工作、产品等等客体的综合评判工作中.本文主要采用模糊数学理论对我院排课系统进行综合评价,经确定评判因素集、权重、等级评语向量和评价矩阵等,从而得到了三级模糊综合评判模型.结果表明该模型用于排课系统评估,客观公正,可信度高.     

A commutative l-monoid for classification with fuzzy attributes

In this paper the properties of an algebraic fuzzy structure are investigated in detail. The structure is suitable for modeling classifications through clusters composed of conventional sets and fuzzy attributes. We show that the structure is an integral commutative l-monoid. The expressive power of the structure is such that several situations can be viewed as classification problems, e.g., fuzzy assessment of students, user modeling for fuzzy hypermedia systems, spaces of the cognitive states of the user of a tutoring system, financial investments, medical diagnoses. The problem of getting the unknown classification beginning from the final classification is deeply investigated and it is shown that the problem is strictly related to the solution of an equation in the monoid. Thus it is possible to construct procedures of the type `what happens if' which permit to attain significant results both on the theoretical side and the applicative one. Finally, by means of this approach, both the absolute and the relative relevance of an attribute are defined and evaluated, given a universe of discourse and a set of classifications. Moreover, this couple of features allow to develop a sophisticated analysis of how a new attribute can be obtained beginning from a set of attributes.     

Interval-valued level cut sets of fuzzy set

The connections between Zadeh fuzzy set and three-valued fuzzy set are established in this paper. The concepts of interval-valued level cut sets on Zadeh fuzzy set are presented and new decomposition theorems and representation theorems of Zadeh fuzzy set are established based on new cut sets. Firstly, four interval-valued level cut sets on Zadeh fuzzy set are defined as three-valued fuzzy sets and it is shown that the interval-valued level cut sets of Zadeh fuzzy set are generalizations of normal cut sets on Zadeh fuzzy set, and have the same properties as those of normal cut sets of Zadeh fuzzy set. Secondly, the new decomposition theorems are established based on these new cut sets. It is pointed out that each kind of interval-valued level cut sets corresponds to two decomposition theorems. Thus eight decomposition theorems are obtained. Finally, the definitions of three-valued inverse order nested sets and three-valued order nested sets are presented with eight representation theorems based on new nested sets.     

Interface optimality in fuzzy inference systems

In this paper we address the issue of designing optimal fuzzy interfaces, which are fundamental components of a fuzzy inference system. Due to the different roles of input and output interfaces, optimality conditions are analyzed separately for the two types of interface. We prove that input interfaces are optimal when based on a particular class of fuzzy sets called “bi-monotonic”, provided that mild conditions hold. The class of bi-monotonic fuzzy sets covers a broad range of fuzzy sets shapes, including convex fuzzy sets, so that the provided theoretical results can be applied to several fuzzy models. Such theoretical results are not applicable to output interfaces, for which a different optimality criterion is proposed. Such criterion leads to the definition of an optimality degree that measures the quality of a fuzzy output interface. Illustrative examples are presented to highlight the features of the proposed optimality degree in assessing the quality of output interfaces.     

R0-代数（NM-代数）的区间值模糊子代数

将区间值模糊集的概念应用于R0-代数,引入区间值模糊R0-子代数的概念并研究它的性质。给出了区间值模糊集成为区间值模糊R0-子代数的一个充要条件;讨论了区间值模糊R0-子代数和R0-子代数之间的关系;定义了区间值模糊集的象和原象,获得了区间值模糊R0-子代数的象和原象成为区间值模糊R0-子代数的条件。     

Axiomatic systems for rough sets and fuzzy rough sets

Rough set theory is an important tool for approximate reasoning about data. Axiomatic systems of rough sets are significant for using rough set theory in logical reasoning systems. In this paper, outer product method are used in rough set study for the first time. By this approach, we propose a unified lower approximation axiomatic system for Pawlak’s rough sets and fuzzy rough sets. As the dual of axiomatic systems for lower approximation, a unified upper approximation axiomatic characterization of rough sets and fuzzy rough sets without any restriction on the cardinality of universe is also given. These rough set axiomatic systems will help to understand the structural feature of various approximate operators.     

A soft computing-based approach to spatio-temporal prediction

This paper aims to incorporate intelligent mechanisms based on Soft Computing in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The proposal here is to present a spatio-temporal prediction method of forestry evolution for a sequence of binary images by means of fuzzy inference systems (FIS), genetic algorithm (GA) and genetic programming (GP). The main inference is based on a fuzzy system which processes a set of crisp/fuzzy relations and infers a crisp relation representing the predicted image at a predefined date. The fuzzy system is formed by a fixed fuzzy rule base and a partition set that may be defined by an expert or optimized by means of a GA. Genetic programming may also be adopted to generate the size of predicted area used in the final stage of the inference process. The developed methodology is applied in regions of Venezuela, France and Guatemala to identify their forestry evolution trends. The proposed approaches are compared with other techniques to validate the system.