GMEOW Sensory Module

• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/slices/sensory
• Tier: extension
• Group: extensions

What This Slice Covers

This slice owns 21 terms and contributes 28 mapping or projection rows. Use it when its terms match the native fact you want to preserve; use the linkage tables to see how those facts leave GMEOW for consumer vocabularies.

Dependencies

• gmeow:slices/kernel
• gmeow:slices/observations
• gmeow:slices/places

Consumers

• Sensory perception observations (the unified stance applied to senses).

Local Map

Examples

Sensor Reading

• Source: slices/extensions/sensory/examples/sensor-reading.ttl
• GMEOW terms: gmeow:ObservableProperty, gmeow:Place, gmeow:Sensor, gmeow:SensorPlatform, gmeow:SensoryObservation, gmeow:SensoryQuantity, gmeow:hasSensoryObservation, gmeow:methodInstrumentalReading, gmeow:name, gmeow:observationMethod

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: a sensor reading on the observation stack . A
# gmeow:SensoryObservation records WHAT was sensed (gmeow:sensoryObservationOf),
# WHICH gmeow:ObservableProperty (humidity), and the gmeow:SensoryQuantity result.
# A gmeow:Sensor is a gufo functional complex that is also an Agent, so it is the
# observation's gmeow:vantage — the SensoryObservation is an Observation like any
# other, just produced by an instrument on a gmeow:SensorPlatform at a location.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/sensory/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

ex:greenhouse a gmeow:Place ;
    gmeow:name "Greenhouse Bay 3"@en ;
    gmeow:hasSensoryObservation ex:obs .

ex:dht22 a gmeow:Sensor ; gmeow:name "DHT22 humidity sensor"@en .

ex:platform a gmeow:SensorPlatform ;
    gmeow:platformLocation ex:greenhouse .

ex:humidity a gmeow:ObservableProperty ; rdfs:label "relative humidity"@en .

# --- The reading: what, which property, the result, the sensor as vantage, and
#     the method (a SensoryObservation is a core Observation — it records its
#     gmeow:observationMethod like any other).
ex:obs a gmeow:SensoryObservation ;
    gmeow:sensoryObservationOf ex:greenhouse ;
    gmeow:sensoryProperty      ex:humidity ;
    gmeow:sensoryResult        ex:quantity ;
    gmeow:vantage              ex:dht22 ;
    gmeow:observationMethod    gmeow:methodInstrumentalReading .

ex:quantity a gmeow:SensoryQuantity ; rdfs:label "65 %RH"@en .

Terms

Classes

Properties

Individuals

Linkages

• Rows: 28
• Projection profiles: ivoa, loinc, sosa
• External vocabularies: afo, afv, geo, loinc, obi, oboe, obscore, pato, sosa

Guide

Sensory — sensors, platforms, and the observation stack applied to senses

Slice: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/slices/sensory · tier: extension A thermometer, a smartphone, and a nose are all observers; their readings are all claims.

GMEOW does not have one model for instrument data and another for perception. This slice deepens the SensoryObservation stub from the observations slice into a full sensor stack, and in doing so applies the unified claim stance to the senses themselves: every reading is an observation from a vantage (Principle 11 — values are perceiver-relative; the vantage may be a device, a person, or an organization), and multiple sensors observing the same property of the same entity produce co-equal readings that coexist without collapse (Principle 9 — no sensor is "the primary observer"). The Principle-15 consumer is exactly that: sensory perception observations — the unified stance applied to senses. SOSA/SSN is bridged by reference, never imported (Principle 5): Sensor ↔ sosa:Sensor, SensorPlatform ↔ sosa:Platform, ObservableProperty ↔ sosa:ObservableProperty.

The observers

gmeow:Sensor

An agent that produces observations by responding to a stimulus — a physical device, a software process, or a biological perceiver. A gufo:RoleMixin under gmeow:Agent: being a sensor is a role, not an essence. The vantage of a SensoryObservation may be a Sensor, a person, or an organization; none is privileged (Principle 9).

gmeow:SensorPlatform

The physical carrier of sensors — a weather station, satellite, buoy, drone, or vehicle. Deliberately distinct from both the Sensor (the observing agent it hosts) and the Place (where it sits, via gmeow:platformLocation). Historical locations are modelled as past observations or location states, never by mutating platformLocation (Principle 9).

What is measured

gmeow:ObservableProperty

The open value vocabulary (Principle 9 — individuals, never subclasses) of measurable properties: temperature, humidity, light intensity, sound pressure level, atmospheric pressure, air quality index, radiation level, and whatever comes next — a new property is data, not a schema change.

gmeow:SensoryQuantity

The scalar result of a sensory observation — value × unit × determinacy × granularity. Declared owl:equivalentClass gmeow:ScalarQuantity following the ScalarQuantity alias precedent alias precedent: the same construct under its domain-specific name, so the sensor stack reads naturally without forking the quantity facility.

The observation itself

gmeow:sensoryProperty

Names the ObservableProperty a SensoryObservation measures. Distinct from observationMethod (the procedure); one property per observation — multiple properties mean multiple observations (Principle 9). EL-axiomatised: every SensoryObservation mediates a vantage, an observed feature, a property, and a result.

gmeow:sensoryObservationOf

The entity whose property is being observed — a subproperty of gmeow:observedFeature, so generic consumers query all observations without knowing the domain. Its inverse, gmeow:hasSensoryObservation, is non-functional by doctrine: competing readings coexist.

gmeow:sensoryResult

The scalar outcome, a subproperty of gmeow:observationResult ranging over SensoryQuantity. The reference frame is carried on the observation via gmeow:hasReferenceFrame and propagates to the result through the existing isResultOf ∘ hasReferenceFrame chain — frame inheritance is axiomatic, not convention.

gmeow:hasSensoryQuantity

The flat shortcut from entity straight to quantity, derived by property chain:

gmeow:hasSensoryQuantity owl:propertyChainAxiom
    ( gmeow:hasSensoryObservation gmeow:sensoryResult ) .

The chain keeps the property non-simple, so it is excluded from all cardinality axioms (OWL 2 DL regularity preserved). Assert the reified path; the shortcut materialises.

Solver layer & alignment

Unit conversion, sensor calibration, aggregation, and time-series analytics are solver-layer concerns (Principle 12) — the graph records readings and their frames, never recomputed derivatives. Alignment to SOSA/SSN remains by reference (Principle 5); the pre-existing gmeow:Agent → sosa:Sensor broadMatch becomes precise here, with gmeow:Sensor as the exact counterpart. Depends on kernel, observations (the claim stack and SensoryObservation stub it deepens), and places (platform locations). The sensory-environment slice consumes this stack for ambient Location×time conditions.