|
We visited the Artificial Intelligence > Fuzzy Logic category in Yahoo!'s Directory and found ourselves in a murky mathematical world. Fuzzy logic was invented to help computers deal with the approximate -- the range of possibilities between true and false -- that don't fit neatly into the binary world of Boolean logic that computers were built to handle. Yikes! To find information that didn't depend on knowledge of classic "crisp" logic, set theory, probability, or programming, we narrowed our search by typing "fuzzy logic for
beginners." Fuzzy logic was invented in the 1960s by Dr. Lotfi Zadeh, a noted computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. It offers a mathematical theory and logical notation to manipulate the uncertainties found in natural language and natural processes. The entry in Webopedia describes a fuzzy world in which things may be true or false to a certain degree -- partially sunny or partially cloudy, somewhat hot or slightly cold, quite tall or very short. Fuzziness describes the non-absolute world in which we live, and
the common sense, relativistic nature of human reasoning and decision making. For this reason, it is essential in the design of expert systems, which apply real-world rules to real-world situations. Fuzzy theory and fuzzy systems are used in applications like spellcheckers and palmtop handwriting interpreters; in controllers for products such as washing machines, video cameras, and ocean drilling systems; and in pattern recognition and predictive software for financial modeling, medical imaging, and manufacturing. So even though it's fuzzy, fuzzy logic is still pretty powerful stuff.
|
