Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Distortion
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|Alteration of the original shape of a signal}} {{About|technology, especially electrical engineering}} {{Redirect|Distort}} In [[signal processing]], '''distortion''' is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a [[signal]]. In [[communications]] and [[electronics]] it means the alteration of the [[waveform]] of an information-bearing [[signal]], such as an [[audio signal]] representing sound or a [[video signal]] representing images, in an electronic device or [[communication channel]]. Distortion is usually unwanted, and so engineers strive to eliminate or minimize it. In some situations, however, distortion may be desirable. For example, in [[noise reduction]] systems like the [[Dolby noise-reduction system|Dolby system]], an audio signal is deliberately distorted in ways that emphasize aspects of the signal that are subject to [[electrical noise]], then it is symmetrically "undistorted" after passing through a noisy communication channel, reducing the noise in the received signal. Distortion is also used as a [[Distortion (music)|musical effect]], particularly with [[electric guitar]]s. The addition of [[Electronic noise|noise]] or other outside signals ([[mains hum|hum]], [[interference (communication)|interference]]) is not considered distortion, though the effects of [[quantization distortion]] are sometimes included in noise. Quality measures that reflect both noise and distortion include the [[SINAD|signal-to-noise and distortion]] (SINAD) ratio and [[THD+N|total harmonic distortion plus noise]] (THD+N).
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)