Granular clustering: a granular signature of data.

The study is devoted to a granular analysis of data. We develop a new clustering algorithm that organizes findings about data in the form of a collection of information granules-hyperboxes. The clustering carried out here is an example of a granulation mechanism. We discuss a compatibility measure guiding a construction (growth) of the clusters and explain a rationale behind their development. The clustering promotes a data mining way of problem solving by emphasizing the transparency of the results (hyperboxes). We discuss a number of indexes describing hyperboxes and expressing relationships between such information granules. It is also shown how the resulting family of the information granules is a concise descriptor of the structure of the data-a granular signature of the data. We examine the properties of features (variables) occurring of the problem as they manifest in the setting of the information granules. Numerical experiments are carried out based on two-dimensional (2-D) synthetic data as well as multivariable Boston data available on the WWW.