Humans continue to use various units of measurement that are outside the internationally accepted System of Units (SI). This creates confusion that machines are unable to overcome. In the future, machines and sensor systems feeding data to those machines are expected to operate exclusively using the SI. This requires an internationally authoritative database for converting the non-SI units that humans enter to SI units at the level of the human–machine interface or human–sensor interface.

There is a need to develop an unambiguous digital version of the International System of Units (SI), as required for information systems and distributed sensor networks. The unit kilogram could already replace the non-SI unit for atomic masses (dalton, Da) because the experimental uncertainties are now very close. But changing the current status of the well-known unit decibel would require considerably more time, until a digital version of a Unique SI Reference Point would be approved.