Concept Analysis Based on Granular Formal Contexts

Formal concept analysis (FCA) is an efficient tool for knowledge discovery and decision making from formal contexts. However, in the era of big data, FCA may face some challenges, one of which is that discovering knowledge from a big formal context may be hard. To make knowledge discovery from formal contexts easier and simpler, this study presents concept analysis based on granular formal contexts. First, granular formal context is proposed by combining FCA with the hierarchical idea of granular computing (GrC). Then, based on which, the corresponding notions such as granular derivation operators, granular formal concept, and granular concept lattice are defined. Finally, the connections between classical and granular derivation operators/formal concepts/concept lattices are presented.