High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In natural science and signal processing, an artifact is any error in the perception or representation of any visual or aural information introduced by the involved equipment. In computer science, digital artifacts are anomalies introduced into digital signals as a result of digital processing. In microscopy, artifacts are sometimes introduced during the processing of samples into slide form. In econometrics, which trades on computing relationships between related variables, an artifact is a spurious finding, such as one based on either a faulty choice of variables or an over extension of the computed relationship.