Is there a name for this method of data consolidation / reduction? Say I have a data series of N elements. I want to create second series that represents a rough approximation of the first series with a reduced set of elements M. **Question 1: Is there a proper name for the general set of techniques used to accomplish this?** **Question 2: Is there a specific name for the following technique or similar techniques?** 1 - Divide N / M, which produces a number of elements per bucket B. 2 - Calculate mean for first B elements. Calculate mean for second set of B elements.. so on and so forth.

The word describing this process is called " **downsampling** ". Sometimes referred to as " **decimation** ".

Having come from a 3D background, I am familiar with reduction of points in a 3D mesh as "decimation". The terms seem to be used similarly in fields of computer graphics, communications, and economic analysis.

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