Digitalisation

Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital format, i.e., a format that can be read by computers. The result is the representation of an object, image, sound, document, or signal obtained by generating a series of numbers that describe a discrete set of points or samples. The result of this conversion is called digital representation or, more specifically, a digital image for the object and digital form for the signal. In contemporary practice, the digitized data is expressed as binary numbers, thereby enabling processing by digital computers and other operations. However, the fundamental process of digitizing entails "the conversion of analog source material into a numerical format"; the decimal or any other number system can be used instead.