In communication systems, signal processing, and electrical engineering, a signal is a function that
"conveys information about the behavior or attributes of some phenomenon".[1] In its most common
usage, in electronics and telecommunication, this is a time
varying voltage, currentor electromagnetic wave used to carry information. A signal may also be
defined as an "observable change in a quantifiable entity".[2] In the physical world, any quantity
exhibiting variation in time or variation in space (such as an image) is potentially a signal that might
provide information on the status of a physical system, or convey a message between observers,
among other possibilities.[3] The IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing states that the term "signal"
includes audio, video, speech, image, communication, geophysical, sonar, radar, medical and
musical signals.[4] In a later effort of redefining a signal, [2] anything that is only a function of space,
such as an image, is excluded from the category of signals. Also, it is stated that a signal may or
may not contain any information.
In nature, signals can take the form of any action by one organism able to be perceived by other
organisms, ranging from the release of chemicals by plants to alert nearby plants of the same type of
a predator, to sounds or motions made by animals to alert other animals of the presence of danger
or of food. Signaling occurs in organisms all the way down to the cellular level, with cell
signaling. Signaling theory, in evolutionary biology, proposes that a substantial driver for evolution is
the ability for animals to communicate with each other by developing ways of signaling. In human
engineering, signals are typically provided by a sensor, and often the original form of a signal is
converted to another form of energy using a transducer. For example, a microphone converts an
acoustic signal to a voltage waveform, and a speakerdoes the reverse.[1]