smoothed

Smoothed is the past participle of the verb smooth and is used as an adjective or verb to describe something that has been made smooth or more uniform. In science and engineering, smoothing refers to operations that reduce jaggedness, noise, or high-frequency variation in data, signals, surfaces, or images, typically to reveal underlying structure or trends.

Statistical and data-smoothing methods include moving average, exponential smoothing, kernel smoothing, LOESS (local regression), and spline smoothing. These techniques differ in how they weight nearby observations and in how the degree of smoothing is controlled by parameters such as bandwidth, span, or smoothing degree. The Savitzky–Golay filter is often used to smooth spectral data while preserving features such as peaks.

In image processing and computer graphics, smoothing reduces jagged edges and noise. Common techniques include Gaussian blur, median filters, and edge-preserving methods like bilateral filtering. In 3D modeling, mesh smoothing (for example Laplacian or Taubin smoothing) is applied to reduce surface irregularities while maintaining overall shape.

Applications range from data analysis and finance to experimental physics and computer graphics. Smoothing helps identify trends, reduce measurement error, and improve numerical stability in further computations. However, excessive smoothing can introduce bias or erase important details, so the amount of smoothing must be chosen carefully, sometimes with cross-validation or other criteria.