Term information
Algorithm that "deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time, to perform useful operations on those signals. Signals of interest can include sound, images, time-varying measurement values and sensor data, for example biological data such as electrocardiograms, control system signals, telecommunication transmission signals such as radio signals, and many others. Signals are analog or digital electrical representations of time-varying or spatial-varying physical quantities. In the context of signal processing, arbitrary binary data streams and on-off signalling are not considered as signals, but only analog and digital signals that are representations of analog physical quantities." source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_processing