Towards fuzzy nominal scales

International audienceThe main objective of a measurement process is to convert the physical state of an entity into an information entity. In order to manipulate information entities, relations that already exist on physical states are also converted into relations between information entities. Nominal scales are scales where the only relation being converted is an equivalence relation. In most applications of nominal scales, the symbolic representation of a physical state is a symbol. Another approach, named fuzzy description, shows that a physical state can be represented by a fuzzy subset of symbols. This paper presents how the fuzzy description can be interpreted into the scale formalism as a new kind of scale. It shows that a fuzzy nominal scale defines a proximity relation