1. A sensor system comprising: an energy storage device; an intermittent energy release device electrically coupled to the energy storage device, wherein the intermittent energy release device causes the energy storage device to release stored energy intermittently; a sensor electrically coupled to the energy storage device, wherein the sensor detects physical events occurring at a physical device, and wherein the sensor is intermittently powered by electrical energy received from the energy storage device via the intermittent energy release device; a synaptic neural network core electrically coupled to the sensor, wherein the synaptic neural network core converts sensor readings from the sensor into a synthetic context-based object that is derived from the sensor readings and a context object, and wherein the synthetic context-based object describes the physical events occurring at the physical device; a transponder electrically coupled to the synaptic neural network core; and a storage buffer within the transponder, wherein the storage buffer stores the synthetic context-based object for transmission by the transponder to a monitoring system.