Managing fuzziness on conventional object-oriented platforms

During the last few years, many database researchers have aimed their efforts at extending the object-oriented model for dealing with different kinds of imperfect information. Some of these scholars have used the Fuzzy Set Theory to deal with imperfection because it has proved to be useful in problems where imprecision and uncertainty play important roles. This article describes an architecture that can be used to develop a fuzzy object-oriented system on top of an existing classical one. This article also introduces a general framework as the basis for managing fuzziness in conventional object-oriented systems. Foodbi, a fuzzy object-oriented database interface, is presented as a prototype that allows the creation of fuzzy object-oriented schemata that can be translated into sets of standard Java classes. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.