Initially conceived as a methodology for the representation and manipulation of imprecise and vague information, fuzzy computation has found wide use in problems that fall well beyond its originally intended scope of application. Many scientists and engineers now use the paradigms of fuzzy computation to tackle problems that are either intractable or unrealistically time consuming. The extraordinary growth of fuzzy computation in recent years has led to the development of numerous systems of major practical importance in fields ranging from medical diagnosis and automated learning to image...