Representing preferences using intervals

In this paper we present a general framework for the comparison of intervals when preference relations have to established. The use of intervals in order to take into account imprecision and vagueness in handling preferences is well known in the literature, but a general theory on how such models behave is lacking. In the paper we generalize the concept of interval (allowing the presence of more than two points). We then introduce the structure of the framework based on the concept of relative position and component set. We provide an exhaustive study of 2-point and 3-point intervals comparison and show the way to generalize such results to n-point intervals.