Probabilistic estimation of uncertain temporal relations

Abstract

A wide range of AI applications should manage time varying information, for example, temporal databases, reservation systems, keeping medical records, financial applications, planning. Many published research articles in the area of temporal representation and reasoning assume that temporal data is precise and certain, even though in reality this assumption is often false. In many situations there is a need to know the relation between two temporal intervals, as it is, for example, during query processing. Indeterminacy means that we do not know exactly when a particular event happened. When two temporal intervals are indeterminate it is in many cases impossible to derive a certain temporal relation between them.

Keywords: Uncertain temporal relation, point, interval, probability.