The concept of fuzzy logic is a fairly recent one.
It has made its entry into all fields of science and has found its way into technology too.
Many household appliances make use of fuzzy logic in order to rationalize their functions.
What then is all the "fuss" about? A brief peek into its development will reveal certain interesting developments that took place in philosophy, mathematics and history.
The concept was adopted in science and later, in technology.
Stated in very simple terms, the concept propounds that everything in the world cannot be conceived in "either-or" terms.
Every element in nature contains it's very opposite.
Hence nothing in the world can exist in terms of neat, binary categories like black/white, good/bad, male/female etc.
The world then is full of contradictions.
Well, from the field of logic, this concept soon found its way in practical applications of science.
In the early sixties of the last century, scientists pondered on whether it was possible to make machines work more efficiently.
If for instance, an air-conditioner could be made to work faster in very hot temperatures, it could be made more efficient.
In addition, Consumption of energy could be reduced substantially.
Such ideas gained momentum and in the next decade, the Japanese built an automatic sub-way that was based on fuzzy logic.
The application soon spread to other areas of electronic applications.
Many technical Gadgets have" fuzzy logic" built into them.
Washing machines are no exceptions to this.
Once the washing machine is loaded with dirty laundry, it begins to calculate how dirty the laundry is and how long it would take to wash it.
If a machine takes ten minutes to wash clothes, it calculates how dirty the laundry is.
If the load is 100% dirty, then it adds two minutes per piece of dirty laundry to the wash cycle that would have taken ten minutes originally.
If the laundry is 50% dirty, then it would add 50% of two minutes.
This means a minute to the ten-minute wash cycle.
If the laundry is greasy then an additional two minutes are added to the cycle.
If the laundry is dirty and greasy, then the machine factors in 4 additional minutes to the entire load.
A fuzzy machine would also have to take into account the amount of soap it would require for dirty clothes, greasy clothes and dirty and greasy clothes.
This requires complex calculations which the machine is programmed to do.
The machine would also require drawing sufficient water to accommodate all the calculations into a wash cycle.
The fuzzy washing machines have now begun to approximate subtle human functions.
They can be relied upon to do household chores in a way people would do them, if they had time.
Why are fuzzy washing machines catching on in the market? Fuzzy logic has made their functions more economical, energy-saving and less time-consuming.
Today, they can be relied upon to save precious, irreplaceable resources.
They have taken a load off human shoulders.
Now the choice seems inevitable.
Fuzzy machines have begun to make us feel less guilty about modernization and technology.
It has made its entry into all fields of science and has found its way into technology too.
Many household appliances make use of fuzzy logic in order to rationalize their functions.
What then is all the "fuss" about? A brief peek into its development will reveal certain interesting developments that took place in philosophy, mathematics and history.
The concept was adopted in science and later, in technology.
Stated in very simple terms, the concept propounds that everything in the world cannot be conceived in "either-or" terms.
Every element in nature contains it's very opposite.
Hence nothing in the world can exist in terms of neat, binary categories like black/white, good/bad, male/female etc.
The world then is full of contradictions.
Well, from the field of logic, this concept soon found its way in practical applications of science.
In the early sixties of the last century, scientists pondered on whether it was possible to make machines work more efficiently.
If for instance, an air-conditioner could be made to work faster in very hot temperatures, it could be made more efficient.
In addition, Consumption of energy could be reduced substantially.
Such ideas gained momentum and in the next decade, the Japanese built an automatic sub-way that was based on fuzzy logic.
The application soon spread to other areas of electronic applications.
Many technical Gadgets have" fuzzy logic" built into them.
Washing machines are no exceptions to this.
Once the washing machine is loaded with dirty laundry, it begins to calculate how dirty the laundry is and how long it would take to wash it.
If a machine takes ten minutes to wash clothes, it calculates how dirty the laundry is.
If the load is 100% dirty, then it adds two minutes per piece of dirty laundry to the wash cycle that would have taken ten minutes originally.
If the laundry is 50% dirty, then it would add 50% of two minutes.
This means a minute to the ten-minute wash cycle.
If the laundry is greasy then an additional two minutes are added to the cycle.
If the laundry is dirty and greasy, then the machine factors in 4 additional minutes to the entire load.
A fuzzy machine would also have to take into account the amount of soap it would require for dirty clothes, greasy clothes and dirty and greasy clothes.
This requires complex calculations which the machine is programmed to do.
The machine would also require drawing sufficient water to accommodate all the calculations into a wash cycle.
The fuzzy washing machines have now begun to approximate subtle human functions.
They can be relied upon to do household chores in a way people would do them, if they had time.
Why are fuzzy washing machines catching on in the market? Fuzzy logic has made their functions more economical, energy-saving and less time-consuming.
Today, they can be relied upon to save precious, irreplaceable resources.
They have taken a load off human shoulders.
Now the choice seems inevitable.
Fuzzy machines have begun to make us feel less guilty about modernization and technology.
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