Dealing with Uncertain and Imprecise Time Intervals in OWL2: A Possibility Theory-Based Approach

• Published in: Research Challenges in Information Science pp. 541 - 557
• Main Authors: Achich, Nassira, Ghorbel, Fatma, Hamdi, Fayçal, Metais, Elisabeth, Gargouri, Faiez
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
• Subjects: Allen’s interval algebra; Possibilistic temporal ontology; Possibility theory; Temporal reasoning; Temporal representation; Uncertain and imprecise temporal data
• ISBN: 9783030750176; 3030750175
• ISSN: 1865-1348; 1865-1356
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-75018-3_35

Dealing with temporal data imperfections in Semantic Web is still under focus. In this paper, we propose an approach based on the possibility theory to represent and reason about time intervals that are simultaneously uncertain and imprecise in OWL2. We start by calculating the possibility and necessity degrees related to the imprecision and uncertainty of the handled temporal data. Then, we propose an ontology-based representation for the handled data associated with the obtained measures and associative qualitative relations. For the reasoning, we extend Allen’s interval algebra to treat both imprecision and uncertainty. All the proposed relations preserve the desirable properties of the original algebra and can be used for temporal reasoning by means of a transitivity table. We create a possibilistic temporal ontology based on the proposed semantic representation and the extension of Allen’s relations. Inferences are based on a set of SWRL rules. Finally, we implement a prototype based on this ontology and we conduct a case study applied to temporal data entered by Alzheimer’s patients in the context of a memory prosthesis.