Complex object comparison in a fuzzy context

The comparison concept plays a determining role in many problems related to object management in an Object-Oriented Database Model. Object comparison is appropriately managed in a crisp object-oriented context by means of the concepts of identity and value equality. However, when dealing with imprecise or imperfect objects, questions like ‘To which extent may two objects be the same one?’ or ‘How similar are two objects?’ have not a clear answer, because the equality concept becomes fuzzy. In this paper we present a set of operators that are useful when comparing objects in a fuzzy environment. In particular, we introduce a generalized resemblance degree between two fuzzy sets of imprecise objects and a generalized resemblance degree to compare complex fuzzy objects within a given class. q 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.