Data description: A general framework of information granules

The study is concerned with a granular data description in which we propose a characterization of numeric data by a collection of information granules so that the key structure of the data, their topology and essential relationships are described in the form of a family of fuzzy sets - information granules. A comprehensive design process is introduced in which we show a two-phase development strategy: first, numeric prototypes are built with the use of Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) that is followed by their augmentation resulting in a collection of information granules. In the design of information granules we engage the fundamental ideas of Granular Computing, especially the principle of justifiable granularity. A series of experiments is presented to visualize the key steps of the construction of information granules. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.