3. An apparatus comprising a knowledge representation unit comprising at least one ontology stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, at least one data-receiving device, a processor communicably connected to the computer readable medium and the data-receiving devices that generates knowledge signatures derived from the at least one ontology by comparing datasets obtained by the data-receiving devices to the ontologies at least one ontology, at least one observation engine populating the knowledge signatures with observed values based on recognition of particular concepts within the datasets according to the at least one ontology, and at least one refinement engine modifying the knowledge signatures with derived values based on inferences on the presence of concepts related through the at least one ontology to those recognized by the observation engine.
3. An apparatus comprising a knowledge representation unit comprising at least one ontology stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, at least one data-receiving device, a processor communicably connected to the computer readable medium and the data-receiving devices that generates knowledge signatures derived from the at least one ontology by comparing datasets obtained by the data-receiving devices to the ontologies at least one ontology, at least one observation engine populating the knowledge signatures with observed values based on recognition of particular concepts within the datasets according to the at least one ontology, and at least one refinement engine modifying the knowledge signatures with derived values based on inferences on the presence of concepts related through the at least one ontology to those recognized by the observation engine. 5. The apparatus as recited in claim 3 , wherein the data-receiving devices are selected from the group consisting of audio sensors, video sensors, scanners, image sensors, optical character recognition devices, keyboards, pointing devices, network cards, modems, and combinations thereof.