Artifact (error)

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Artifacts caused by poor signal strength on KYW-TV
Artifacts caused by poor signal strength on KYW-TV

An artifact is the error or misrepresentation introduced by a technique and/or technology. For example a poor pseudo-random number generator would introduce artifacts into statistical research models.

[edit] Types

  • Synthesis: an element is produced from, but is neither a part of the technique nor of the subject. For an example see "Sampling sinusoidal functions" in aliasing

[edit] Examples

Artifacts of this kind include, but are not limited to:

  • Artifact (medical imaging), misrepresentations of tissue structures seen in medical images
  • Artifact (observational), any perceived distortion or other data error caused by the instrument of observation
  • Compression artifact, data compression artifact in computer science, resulting from lossy data compression
  • Digital artifact, a visible defect in a digital photo or video picture
  • Sonic artifact, in sound and music production, sonic material that is accidental or unwanted, resulting from the editing of another sound