noun
artifact
An unintended effect introduced by a process of observation, recording, or analysis.
The bright streak in the scan is an artifact of movement.
Etymology
The pieces mean something made by human skill. In observation or analysis, an artifact is an effect produced by the procedure itself rather than a feature of the thing being studied.
More examples
- Heavy compression introduces visible artifacts into the image.
- The apparent trend is an artifact of averaging the data.
- Researchers check whether the recorded spike is a measurement artifact.
Forms
artifact · artifacts
artifactual adjective — Introduced unintentionally by observation, recording, or analysis.
Similar words
- distortion
- A change that misrepresents something, whether intentional or accidental.
- noise
- Unwanted variation that obscures a signal, not necessarily introduced by processing.