Artifact

An object produced or shaped by human beings and of archaeological or historical interest.

Any human-made or used object, intact or in pieces, 50 years or older. Artifacts are protected by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979.

In facsimile or television, a defect or distortion of the image, introduced along the sequence from origination and image capture to final display. Note 1: Artifacts may arise from the overload of channel capacity by excess signal bandwidth. Note 2: In general, artifacts may result from (a) sampling effects in temporal, spatial, or frequency domains, (b) processing by the transfer functions, (c) compromises and inadequacies in the system employed, (d) cascading of minor defects, or (e) any other departure of the total system from "complete transparency." [After SMPTE]