Attribute reduction in interval-valued information systems based on information entropies

作者:Dai, Jian-hua*; Hu, Hu; Zheng, Guo-jie; Hu, Qing-hua; Han, Hui-feng; Shi, Hong
来源:Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering, 2016, 17(9): 919-928.
DOI:10.1631/FITEE.1500447

摘要

Interval-valued data appear as a way to represent the uncertainty affecting the observed values. Dealing with interval-valued information systems is helpful to generalize the applications of rough set theory. Attribute reduction is a key issue in analysis of interval-valued data. Existing attribute reduction methods for single-valued data are unsuitable for interval-valued data. So far, there have been few studies on attribute reduction methods for interval-valued data. In this paper, we propose a framework for attribute reduction in interval-valued data from the viewpoint of information theory. Some information theory concepts, including entropy, conditional entropy, and joint entropy, are given in interval-valued information systems. Based on these concepts, we provide an information theory view for attribute reduction in interval-valued information systems. Consequently, attribute reduction algorithms are proposed. Experiments show that the proposed framework is effective for attribute reduction in interval-valued information systems.