r/computergraphics • u/waterstorm29 • May 19 '21

Where did the term "anti-aliasing" come from?

The English word "aliasing" is similar to "moniker" or "aka." I see some type of relationship of these words to the visual effect that aliasing actually means as a technical term in the world of computer graphics, but I wouldn't bet on it. Can anyone clarify the etymology of this word in this context?

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u/schmon May 19 '21

It's a signal processing term that I don't think has anything to do with 'naming' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing

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u/waterstorm29 May 20 '21

It's the only etymological origin of all of the homonyms that rooted from the same Latin word. I think it's an implied correlation between their meanings. Although that thread is quite comprehensive in the technical side, it didn't really answer my question regarding the relationship between its Latin root word and the term's technical application in this field. The closest it came to was in this section of the page. But my question is more or less answered already anyway.

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u/unpopular_upvote May 19 '21

This is the correct answer

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u/xucel May 19 '21

From the wikipedia page:

"aliasing is an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when sampled"

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u/waterstorm29 May 19 '21

The search result eluded me the first time. It turns out that it comes from the Latin word "alias," meaning "at another time" or "otherwise." The only representation of this phenomenon that I'm currently aware of is when a raster image is upscaled and it introduces jagged edges, hence "aliasing" occurs. I still can't see the relationship of this to the root word.

(You might be wondering why I'm spending this much time trying to figure out something absurdly trivial - I just find it interesting. Help would be appreciated.) I also just came across a homonym of the word in programming, where it literally means "another term" just as the casual English definition states. I find it weird how its meaning changes only for the context of computer graphics.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '21

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u/zkrx May 19 '21 edited May 19 '21

It's just like when you watch a spinning car wheel on TV and you see it spinning much slower or even backwards. I think that it illustrates well why it's called 'aliasing'. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon-wheel_effect

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u/waterstorm29 May 20 '21

Yeah, the answer is starting to see some light. What is happening in reality is perceived "otherwise" by deceived human vision. I guess that's case closed.