Fuzzy region connection calculus: Representing vague topological information

Qualitative spatial information plays a key role in many applications. While it is well-recognized that all but a few of these applications deal with spatial information that is affected by vagueness, relatively little work has been done on modelling this vagueness in such a way that spatial reasoning can still be performed. This paper presents a general approach to represent vague topological information (e.g., A is a part of B, A is bordering on B), using the well-known region connection calculus as a starting point. The resulting framework is applicable in a wide variety of contexts, including those where space is used in a metaphorical way. Most notably, it can be used for representing, and reasoning about, qualitative relations between regions with vague boundaries. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.