A fuzzy information retrieval system

Presents an information retrieval system, based on fuzzy logic, capable of assessing if a database contains information pertinent to a subject of interest. The tool evaluates each record in the database via a fuzzy evaluator which attributes a fuzzy membership value indicating its relationship to such subject, thus providing an assessment for each record of the database and for the database as a whole regarding its pertinence to the subject of interest. The system has been developed for the examination of databases that were created during the development of the IBM 4381 computer systems, for bookkeeping purposes, to assess if such databases contain information pertinent to the functional changes that occurred during the development cycle. The system, however, can be applied with minimal changes to a variety of circumstances, provided that the fundamental assumptions for the development of the membership functions are respected in the new application