Ground Truth

Ground truth

Ground truth is information that is known to be real or true, provided by direct observation and measurement as opposed to information provided by inference. The term ground truth appeared in remote sensing literature as early as 1972, when NASA described it as essential "data about ... materials on the earth's surface" used to calibrate measurements. It was later adopted by the statistical modeling and machine learning communities. It is also commonly used to refer to information acquired by direct observation to inform immediate decisions in domains where remote sensing equipment is employed but is imperfect or inconclusive, often in urgent contexts.

Truth

Truth is commonly understood as conformity to reality or fact. It contrasts with falsity or misrepresentation that fails to align with the world. Truth is typically treated as a property of sentences, propositions, or beliefs that describe things as they are. It is closely related to truthfulness, a virtue associated with honesty, and to truthlikeness, a characteristic of theories that approximate the truth.

ground truth

Noun

1. Information acquired by direct observation rather than by inference.

Verb

1. To gather information by direct observation rather than inference.