Data processing

Data processing is any computer process that converts data into information or knowledge. The processing is usually assumed to be automated and running on a computer. Because data are most useful when well-presented and actually informative, data-processing systems are often referred to as information systems to emphasize their practicality. Nevertheless, the terms are roughly synonymous, performing similar conversions; data-processing systems typically manipulate raw data into information, and likewise information systems typically take raw data as input to produce information as output.In data processing, data are defined as numbers or characters that represent measurements from observable phenomena. A single datum is a single measurement from observable phenomena. Measured information is then algorithmically derived and/or logically deduced and/or statistically calculated from multiple data. (evidence). Informationis defined as either a meaningful answer to a query or a meaningful stimulus that can cascade into further queries. For example gathering seismic data leads to alteration of seismic data to suppress noise, enhance signal and migrate seismic events to the appropriate location in space. Processing steps typically include analysis of velocities and frequencies, static corrections, deconvolution, normal moveout, dip moveout, stacking, and migration, which can be performed before or after stacking. Seismic processing facilitates better interpretation because subsurface structures and reflection geometries are more apparent.Practically all naturally occurring processes can be viewed as examples of data processing systems where "observable" information in the form of pressure , light, etc. are converted by human observer into electrical signals in the nervous system as the senses we recognize as touch , sound, and vision . Even the interaction of non-living systems may be viewed in this way as rudimentary information processing systems. Conventional usage of the terms data processing and information systems restricts their use to refer to the algorithmic derivations, logical deductions, and statistical calculations that recur perennially in general business environments, rather than in the more expansive sense of all conversions of real-world measurements into real-world information in, say, an organic biological system or even a scientific or engineering system.