Portfolio Architecture
The VI Ontology is organized as three linked families sharing a common core. Each family addresses a distinct kind of knowledge, and cross-family relations connect them into a coherent whole.
Shared Core
Six cross-cutting concepts that every family reuses: Actor (who), Artifact (what), Activity (how), Objective (why), Evidence (justification), and Role (contextual function).
Operational Family
Systems, projects, processes, products, technologies. Covers the System Ontology (19 dimensions) and VI-specific operational vocabulary (18 topics). 37 topics total across 3 tiers.
Organizational Family
Business, consulting practice, market arenas, value chains, delivery models. Includes the Project Ontology (20 dimensions) and VI-specific business vocabulary (25 topics). 45 topics total.
Epistemic Family
Academic traditions, methods, standards, evidence models, classification structures. The most stable family — changes slowly and can be populated with high confidence. 17 topics.
Domain Framing
Visual Intelligence is positioned within a three-tier scope model that distinguishes core traditions from adjacent and enabling domains.
| Scope Tier | Domains |
|---|---|
| Core VI Traditions | Sensing/Imaging, Machine Vision, Computer Vision, AI Vision |
| Adjacent Domains | Cyber-physical systems, controls, robotics, AI foundations |
| Enabling Domains | Machine learning, systems engineering, cybernetics, BPM, epistemology, linguistics, cryptography, PMI, IEEE/ISO standards |
External Ontology Reuse Strategy
The project uses a four-tier reuse model. Only "Adopt Now" standards are active dependencies.
| Tier | Standard | Role in VI Portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| Adopt Now | OWL 2 | Base implementation language |
| Adopt Now | SKOS | Concepts, taxonomies, controlled vocabularies |
| Adopt Now | PROV-O | Evidence and provenance tracking |
| Adopt Now | ORG | Organizations, roles, structures |
| Adopt Now | QUDT | Quantities, units, measurements |
| Extend Later | SSN/SOSA | Vision systems as sensors |
| Extend Later | DOLCE+DnS | Situation-based modeling patterns |
| Map Later | Dublin Core | Metadata properties |
| Map Later | SysML / BPMN | Systems & process modeling notation |
| Reference | BFO 2.0 | Upper ontology alignment (IOF compatibility) |
| Reference | IEEE / ISO AI | Vision, robotics, AI standards |
Cross-Family Relations
16 typed relations connect concepts across families. These are architectural connectors, not topics to populate.
| Relation | From | To | What It Expresses |
|---|---|---|---|
| hasFunction | VI System (OP) | Primary Function (OP) | What the system does |
| producesContent | VI System (OP) | Output Content (OP) | What meaning the system handles |
| expressedAs | VI System (OP) | Output Modality (OP) | How results are delivered |
| couplesWith | VI System (OP) | Output Coupling (OP) | How output shapes action |
| deliveredVia | VI System (OP) | Delivery Model (OR) | How it reaches market |
| measuredBy | Value Chain (OR) | Metric (OR) | How value is quantified |
| governedBy | Market Arena (OR) | Regulatory Regime (EP) | Which regulations define an arena |
| groundedIn | Semantic Abstraction (OP) | VI Tradition (EP) | Academic grounding |
| alignsTo | Any concept | External Standard (EP) | Standards traceability |
| producesValue | Activity (Core) | Value Mechanism (OR) | How activities generate outcomes |
| bridgesTo | Project dim (OR) | System dim (OP) | Project-system linking |