Aspects of Dealing with Imperfect Data in Temporal Databases

In reality, some objects or concepts have properties with a time-variant or time-related nature. Modelling these kinds of objects or concepts in a (relational) database schema is possible, but time-variant and time-related attributes have an impact on the consistency of the entire database. Therefore, temporal database models have been proposed to deal with this. Time itself can be at the source of imprecision, vagueness and uncertainty, since existing time measuring devices are inherently imperfect. Accordingly, human beings manage time using temporal indications and temporal notions, which may contain imprecision, vagueness and uncertainty. However, the imperfection in human-used temporal indications is supported by human interpretation, whereas information systems need extraordinary support for this. Several proposals for dealing with such imperfections when modelling temporal aspects exist. Some of these proposals consider the basis of the system to be the conversion of the specificity of temporal notions between used temporal expressions. Other proposals consider the temporal indications in the used temporal expressions to be the source of imperfection. In this chapter, an overview is given, concerning the basic concepts and issues related to the modelling of time as such or in (relational) database models and the imperfections that may arise during or as a result of this modelling. Next to this, a novel and currently researched technique for handling some of these imperfections is presented.