{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"progressive_disclosure__accounting_auditing","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"progressive_disclosure__accounting_auditing__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","decision":"PROPOSAL","abstention_reason":null,"proposal":{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"progressive_disclosure__accounting_auditing","arm":"CONSTRAINED_HIGH","candidate_id":"progressive_disclosure__accounting_auditing__CONSTRAINED_HIGH","proposal_index":1,"version":0,"title":"Nested Mechanical Weighing Cassette for Progressive Inventory-Discrepancy Localization","problem":"An auditor verifying a recorded quantity of high-count, nominally identical inventory, such as standardized metal fasteners, can weigh the whole container quickly but cannot locate a discrepancy from the aggregate result. A full unit count supplies detail but disrupts operations and exposes the auditor to many irrelevant item-level observations even when the aggregate agrees.","actors":["Inventory custodian","Independent inventory auditor","Nominally identical inventory units","Nested tared storage cassette","Mechanical balance or calibrated spring scale","Physical reference weights"],"observable_state":"The outer scale first exposes a gross mass comparison with a conspicuous in-tolerance or out-of-tolerance indication. If the result is out of tolerance, separately tared half-cassettes, quarter-cassettes, and leaf pockets can be removed and mechanically compared with their corresponding reference masses, revealing the branch containing the discrepancy. Engraved parent-child codes preserve location and a broken seal or overrange flag remains visible at the outer layer.","consequence":"Without localization, an aggregate mismatch forces a disruptive full count or leaves the recorded inventory quantity insufficiently supported; a gross match can also create false assurance when substitutions or offsetting discrepancies are possible.","affected_objective":"Obtain proportionate, physically grounded audit evidence about inventory existence and quantity while retaining access to complete item-level inspection.","intervention":"Store a bounded class of uniform inventory in a reusable, standardized-tare cassette divided into a physical binary hierarchy of removable modules. Place the closed cassette on a noncomputing balance configured with physical reference weights for the expected quantity. The outer reading supplies the first-layer aggregate result. An out-of-tolerance result triggers physical removal and weighing of the two child modules; only the discrepant branch needs to be subdivided again until a leaf pocket or unit group is reached. Engraved depth and parent-child marks provide orientation, while every module remains openable for an unrestricted full count. A mechanically latched red overrange indicator and tamper witness are visible without drilling down.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Default Summary / first information layer","domain_realization":"The closed-cassette balance reading exposes only whether total measured mass agrees with the physical reference within the declared tolerance."},{"archetype_element":"Reveal Trigger","domain_realization":"A mechanical out-of-tolerance pointer or latched red flag makes weighing the cassette's child modules relevant."},{"archetype_element":"Deeper Information Layers","domain_realization":"Nested half-, quarter-, and leaf-level modules yield progressively narrower mass comparisons."},{"archetype_element":"Drilldown Path","domain_realization":"The cassette's physical containment tree connects the gross discrepancy to successively smaller inventory groups."},{"archetype_element":"Orientation Cue and Return Path","domain_realization":"Engraved module codes identify each module's depth and parent; re-nesting the modules restores the aggregate configuration."},{"archetype_element":"Critical Detail Exception","domain_realization":"Overrange, scale-zero failure, or tamper evidence appears on the exterior and is never hidden in a deeper module."},{"archetype_element":"Full Access Escape Hatch","domain_realization":"All modules and leaf pockets can be opened directly for a complete count regardless of the staged weighing path."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"summary_detail_view","role":"A mechanical gross comparison provides the summary, while removable submodules provide the underlying detail.","counterfactual_removal":"Without the gross comparison, every verification begins at module or unit level and the load-reduction function disappears."},{"mechanism_slug":"drilldown_disclosure","role":"The nested cassette permits movement from total stock to successively smaller physical groups along a visible containment hierarchy.","counterfactual_removal":"Without hierarchical partitions, weighing can detect a gross difference but cannot progressively localize it."},{"mechanism_slug":"risk_or_exception_disclosure","role":"A mismatch, overrange condition, or disturbed tamper witness makes deeper inspection immediately salient.","counterfactual_removal":"Without exterior exception indicators, unsafe or ambiguous states could remain concealed behind the aggregate presentation."}],"causal_chain":["Uniform inventory is placed in modules with known tare and bounded unit-mass variation.","The closed cassette is mechanically compared with a reference mass representing the expected quantity.","A gross agreement supplies a coarse first-layer observation; a gross disagreement produces an immediate physical exception signal.","When more detail is needed, separately tared child modules are weighed against their own reference masses.","The spatial hierarchy confines each new measurement to a smaller subset, progressively localizing the discrepant branch.","Engraved identifiers maintain the relationship between each detailed observation and the original aggregate.","The auditor may open the localized leaf or all leaves for direct counting and determines what evidence is sufficient; the device itself neither changes records nor makes the audit conclusion."],"baseline":"Use a whole-container scale for an aggregate comparison and, after any mismatch, empty the container for a complete manual count. This baseline offers either little localization or all item-level detail at once.","nearest_rivals":["Whole-bin weighing: similarly physical and fast, but it supplies no designed path from an aggregate mismatch to a localized subset.","Complete manual count: exposes full detail and can identify unit shortages, but does not defer irrelevant detail when the aggregate and risk conditions permit a coarser first observation.","Random physical sampling: reduces inspected units but can miss a discrepancy outside the sample and does not progressively localize a detected aggregate mismatch.","Fixed one-level compartment trays: narrow a discrepancy to compartments but lack multiple, oriented depth levels for continued localization."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"For inventory whose unit-mass variation and contamination risk are bounded, the nested cassette differs from whole-bin weighing by physically preserving a summary-to-leaf localization path, and differs from a full count by allowing detail to be measured branch by branch. Whether that distinction improves audit performance remains an empirical question.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The inventory owner authorizes handling of goods; the responsible independent auditor determines whether the resulting measurements are admissible or sufficient audit evidence. Neither authority is transferred to the device.","authorized_first_step":"A jointly approved bench test using mock, nonbook inventory and a manually operated balance; no live inventory balance or audit conclusion may be changed from the test.","excluded_actions":["Adjusting accounting records from a cassette indication","Treating an in-tolerance gross result as sufficient evidence by itself","Deploying the prototype on live, hazardous, fragile, or high-value inventory","Concealing scale-zero, overrange, tamper, or calibration failures","Using the cassette outside its specified unit-mass, load, and tare bounds"],"halt_rollback":"Stop if reference weights or tare checks drift, indicators are ambiguous, modules damage or mix goods, or discrepancy patterns cannot be localized reproducibly. Remove the prototype, restore the mock units to their original container, and revert to direct counting."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"Equal-mass substitutions, offsetting shortages and overages in the same branch, foreign objects, variable moisture, or unit-mass dispersion could make the gross or intermediate comparisons agree while unit quantity is wrong.","problem_falsifier":"If observers can localize realistic aggregate discrepancies from ordinary whole-bin weighing without a full count or another detail-producing method, the asserted localization problem is not present in the selected setting.","intervention_falsifier":"The intervention fails if known non-offsetting shortages within its declared mass and tolerance bounds do not consistently produce the correct discrepant branch, or if users cannot recover the corresponding leaf from the physical orientation marks.","risks":["False reassurance from a mass match despite equal-mass substitution or offsetting errors","Scale drift, incorrect reference weights, or tare variation","Loss, mixing, or damage while modules are opened","Added container cost, weight, and storage volume","Custodian prediction of module boundaries could enable discrepancy placement that exploits tolerance limits","Overreliance on the instrument at the expense of other audit assertions such as ownership, condition, and valuation"]},"next_evidence_step":"Build one noncomputing 32-unit mock cassette with four hierarchical depths and test it on a bench balance. Randomly introduce a single missing unit, an extra unit, a wrong-mass substitute, an equal-mass substitute, offsetting errors, tare shifts, and scale-zero errors. Record only whether the outer exception appears, whether the correct branch is localized, how many physical comparisons are required, and whether the exterior critical indicators are noticed. Compare the same mock cases with whole-bin weighing followed by full counting; make no deployment or effect-size claim.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"Runtime isolation was honored; no other proposal or experiment candidate was inspected, so no cross-candidate diversity claim is made.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":[],"conceptual_changes":[],"operational_changes":[],"evidence_changes":[],"claim_changes":[]},"substrate_contract":{"primary_allowed_process":"MEASUREMENT_INSTRUMENTATION","counterfactual_independence":"Remove all software, algorithms, databases, dashboards, reporting, incentives, authorization rules, and procedural enforcement: the balance still compares masses, the nested physical partitions still isolate progressively smaller subsets, exterior exception flags still manifest, and engraved containment marks still preserve the path from aggregate to leaf. Those material and measurement operations produce the essential detection-and-localization effect.","forbidden_channel_audit":"The proposal contains no sensor-to-analytics pipeline, automated inference, software control loop, record-changing mechanism, incentive, or policy gate. Human authorization limits testing and evidentiary use but does not cause the measurement effect. Written logs or audit reports may document observations, yet removing them leaves the physical comparison and progressive localization intact."}}}