Conversion of an incoming analog signal into digital or numeric value for storage and processing is known as what?

• A. Digitization
• B. Sampling
• C. Encoding
• D. Modulation

Answer: (A)

Digitization is the process of turning a continuous analog signal into digital numeric values that can be stored and processed. In dental radiology, the detector’s output is analog, so an analog-to-digital converter is used. It first samples the signal at regular intervals (sampling) and then assigns each sample a finite numeric value (quantization). This end-to-end conversion yields digital data that can be stored, processed, and displayed. Sampling alone only selects moments in time and doesn’t produce the actual digital values. Encoding refers to how those digital values are represented in binary, and modulation is about altering a carrier signal for transmission, not the conversion to digital form.