Book excerpt: Information granules, as encountered in natural language, are implicit in nature. To make them fully operational so they can be effectively used to analyze and design intelligent systems, information granules need to be made explicit. An emerging discipline, granular computing focuses on formalizing information granules and unifying them to create a coherent methodological and developmental environment for intelligent system design and analysis. Granular Computing: Analysis and Design of Intelligent Systems presents the unified principles of granular computing along with its comprehensive algorithmic framework and design practices. Introduces the concepts of information granules, information granularity, and granular computing Presents the key formalisms of information granules Builds on the concepts of information granules with discussion of higher-order and higher-type information granules Discusses the operational concept of information granulation and degranulation by highlighting the essence of this tandem and its quantification in terms of the associated reconstruction error Examines the principle of justifiable granularity Stresses the need to look at information granularity as an important design asset that helps construct more realistic models of real-world systems or facilitate collaborative pursuits of system modeling Highlights the concepts, architectures, and design algorithms of granular models Explores application domains where granular computing and granular models play a visible role, including pattern recognition, time series, and decision making Written by an internationally renowned authority in the field, this innovative book introduces readers to granular computing as a new paradigm for the analysis and synthesis of intelligent systems. It is a valuable resource for those engaged in research and practical developments in computer, electrical, industrial, manufacturing, and biomedical engineering. Building from fundamentals, the book is also suitable for readers from nontechnical disciplines where information granules assume a visible position.