quantisation
Quantisation is the process of mapping a continuous range of values to a finite set of discrete levels. In signal processing, it is part of analog-to-digital conversion, where a sampled signal's amplitudes are rounded to the nearest available level. The result is quantisation error, or noise, whose properties depend on the quantiser design. A uniform quantiser uses evenly spaced levels; non-uniform quantisers allocate levels nonlinearly, as in companding schemes (mu-law, A-law) to better match perceptual sensitivity or dynamic range.
The number of levels is determined by the word length in digital systems, commonly 8, 12, 16,
In physics, quantisation refers to the discrete nature of certain physical quantities, such as energy levels
Applications include audio and image encoding, digital communications, and control systems, where quantisation is inevitable in