normalisation

Normalisation is a term used in several areas of mathematics and AI and refers to ways to turn an input into a standardised form that is easier to deal with. Examples include:

• In {{data preparation} turning date fields with diferent formats into a timestamp or an ISO standard date.


• In object recognition during image processing transforming the scale and orientation of a detected object so that it always ends up being presented to later stages in the same way.


• In statistical processing scaling variables so that they have the same standard deviation.


• In statistics this may also mean transforming a variable so that it has a tractable form, typically a {normal distribution}} or uniform distrbution. This is also often calle pre-whitening.