Glossary · Multimodal systems
Modality
A form of information with its own structure and acquisition process, such as text, image, audio, video, depth, or sensor measurements.
Why it matters
Different modalities have different sampling rates, noise, spatial or temporal structure, and missing-data behavior, so one preprocessing assumption rarely fits all of them.
In practice
Document each modality's source, units, resolution, timing, preprocessing, and missing-value policy before designing alignment or fusion.
Common confusion
A modality is not merely a file extension or feature column. Several encodings can represent one modality, and one sample can contain several modalities.
Related terms
Sources
Browse the learning paths to see this term in context — every lesson is free to read.