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Smith & Tinker LLC

Independent Applied Intelligence StudioNew Mexico, USA

Machine Applications for the Human Experience.

Smith & Tinker is an independent engineering studio developing artificial intelligence applications, software systems, and experimental technologies that connect sophisticated computation with practical human needs.

Explore Our WorkView GitHub
Established
2015
Entity
Smith & Tinker LLC
Location
New Mexico, USA
Disciplines
AI / Software / Engineering

§1 — Active Products

Active Products

Independent software and creative technologies developed and maintained by Smith & Tinker.

2 entries · pre-revenue

P-01

Status: Public Beta — Pre-Revenue

AI / Language Technology

Vox Machina Live

Vox Machina Live is an AI-powered spoken-language translation application designed to make natural conversations possible across language barriers. It combines speech recognition, machine translation, and synthesized voice output in a browser-based experience.

  • Bidirectional spoken-language translationAvailable
  • Automatic language detectionAvailable
  • Speech recognition and contextual transcriptionAvailable
  • Synthetic spoken-language outputAvailable
  • Near-real-time conversational responsivenessIn progress
  • Optional voice cloning that reproduces a speaker’s vocal characteristics, with the speaker’s consentPlanned
Launch Public BetaProject Details
P-02

Status: Active Product — Pre-Revenue

AI / Creative Technologies / Digital Publishing

DRIFT

DRIFT is an AI-assisted literary role-playing game (LitRPG) storytelling and publishing project combining structured narrative systems, fictional-world continuity, and long-form creative production.

  • Functional project website and developed codebaseAvailable
  • Structured fictional-world and character consistencyAvailable
  • AI-assisted narrative developmentAvailable
  • Original LitRPG novel in draft and editing stagesIn progress
  • Continuing manuscript preparationIn progress
  • Independent publication through Amazon Kindle Direct PublishingPlanned
Explore DRIFTProject Details

§2 — Services

Applied Services & Client Work

Alongside proprietary software development, Smith & Tinker provides specialized technical, administrative, and AI-assisted support to external businesses.

Technical capabilities

  • Applied AI & Machine Learning

    Model selection, integration, and evaluation inside existing software.

  • Software Engineering & Automation

    Full-stack applications, scripts, and integrations that remove repetitive work.

  • Local & Cloud Inference

    Model serving on local hardware or cloud GPUs, sized to the workload.

  • Technical Workflow Development

    Turning ad-hoc processes into documented, repeatable pipelines.

  • Data Processing & Information Systems

    Ingesting, cleaning, structuring, and retrieving operational data.

  • Remote Administrative & AI-Assisted Support

    Communications, documents, and day-to-day operations handled remotely.

  • Engineering Software & Consulting

    Technical review and tooling grounded in electrical and computer engineering.

These describe what the studio can do, not a list of separately delivered engagements.

Active client engagement

Status: Paid Client Engagement

Leon’s Marine Service

Industry
Marine services
Location
Florida, United States
Client telephone
+1 (954) 205-4929

Smith & Tinker provides remote administrative and AI-assisted operational support to Leon’s Marine Service, including business communications, information processing, digital workflows, document preparation, and technical assistance.

Compensation has been received for services performed. This is a commercial-service relationship, separate from the company's pre-revenue software products.

§3 — In Development

In Development

D-01

Status: In Development

Engineering Software / Automated Visualization

Aurora Foundry

Aurora Foundry is an AI-assisted engineering visualization pipeline being developed to transform CAD and 3D design assets into presentation-ready digital models, realistic renders, and automated visual outputs.

Not yet released · No public demo

Technical focus

  • CAD and 3D geometry processing
  • Model preparation and normalization
  • AI-assisted materials and texturing
  • Physically based rendering
  • GPU-assisted production workflows
  • Automated image and animation generation

§4 — Research Register

Research & Experimental Systems

Beyond its active products and client engagements, Smith & Tinker explores emerging architectures and computational approaches with potential future scientific, creative, and commercial applications.

5 initiatives · none commercialized

  1. R-01Scientific AI Infrastructure

    Scientific AI Inference & Potential LANL Commercialization

    Research and planning toward domain-specific, locally operated AI inference infrastructure for scientific and engineering environments. The proposed architecture combines next-generation NVIDIA Blackwell GPU systems with custom model-serving backends, inference harnesses, orchestration systems, and specialized interfaces.

    • High-performance local AI inference
    • Domain-specific machine learning
    • Scientific & engineering workflow integration
    • Proprietary backend inference frameworks
    • Agent orchestration & reasoning harnesses
    • Controlled computing & data environments
    • High-performance GPU infrastructure

    Proposed architecture. No hardware has been purchased or deployed, and no institutional partnership exists.

    Read the full research brief

    Status: Exploratory / Commercialization Planning

  2. R-02Machine Intelligence

    VELA — Neurosymbolic Intelligence Architecture

    A proposed machine-intelligence architecture integrating autoregressive transformer models, CPU-based symbolic inference, active logic, persistent memory, and metacognitive evaluation.

    • Neurosymbolic reasoning
    • Von Neumann CPU-based symbolic execution
    • Transformer-based generative inference
    • Active logic & dynamic belief revision
    • Persistent AI memory
    • Metacognitive monitoring & self-evaluation

    A design under study. It makes no claim to human-level capability.

    Status: Conceptual Research

  3. R-03Generative Systems

    Autonomous Novel-Writing Harness

    An experimental AI framework for the generation, management, critique, and iterative editing of full-length original fiction.

    • Multi-stage story planning
    • Character & setting memory
    • Continuity management
    • Drafting & critique loops
    • Long-form editorial workflows

    Complementary to DRIFT, but a separate research effort — not the system that produces it.

    Status: Experimental Research

  4. R-04Theoretical Physics

    Unified Spacetime Theory

    Exploratory conceptual and mathematical investigation into spacetime structure and potential unified theoretical models of physical phenomena.

    • Spacetime structure
    • Mathematical modeling
    • Unification approaches

    Early-stage theoretical work. No result has been established or independently validated.

    Status: Independent Theoretical Research

  5. R-05Quantitative Computing

    Falkor — Financial & Quantitative Systems

    Exploration of quantitative financial analysis systems, signal processing, algorithmic modeling, backtesting, and computational risk management.

    • Financial time-series modeling
    • Statistical signal processing
    • Algorithmic strategy development
    • Backtesting & quantitative validation
    • Adaptive computational methods

    Internal research only. Not financial advice, a brokerage, a fund, or a trading service.

    Status: Research / Prototype Concepts

Additional explorations

Smaller lines of inquiry that inform the work above: persistent machine-memory architectures, multi-agent ai systems, edge & embedded inference, human-machine interfaces, experimental computational architectures.

§5 — Studio

An Independent Workshop for Useful, Unusual Machines.

Founded in 2015, Smith & Tinker LLC is an independent technology-development company based in New Mexico, United States. The studio brings together software engineering, electrical and computer engineering, artificial intelligence, and experimental product development.

The company's work ranges from working software applications and paid client services to early-stage research investigating future computational technologies.

Smith & Tinker mark: a robot with a child standing on its shoulder

Founder

Shawn Hinzey

Founder & Managing Member

  • Electrical & Computer Engineer
  • Software & AI Systems Developer
  • Applied Research & Technical Product Development
LinkedInGitHub

How the studio works

Curiosity
Follow interesting questions far enough to learn something real.
Rigor
Engineer it properly, test it honestly, and state its limits plainly.
Usefulness
Judge the work by whether it helps someone do something they couldn’t before.
Human-centered
Machines are the method. People are the point.

§6 — Business Model

Three kinds of work

  1. Proprietary Products

    Software applications and digital publishing, with potential subscriptions, licensing, and product commercialization. Current products are pre-revenue.

  2. Technical Services

    Paid client engagements involving engineering software, automation, AI-assisted operations, and technical support.

  3. Research & Development

    Internally developed concepts, prototypes, experimental architectures, and prospective commercialization opportunities.

§7 — Contact

Have a difficult problem?

Smith & Tinker is open to select technical collaborations, applied software projects, and engineering partnerships.

Start a Conversationshinzey@smithandtinker.co