Work by Joshua Allen Talbott

Joshua Allen Talbott is a technology director, AI builder, maker, inventor, and educator in Kent, Ohio. He leads technology for Kent State University's College of Sciences and Humanities and has worked across research computing, artificial intelligence, software development, broadcast engineering, 3D capture and fabrication, and university teaching.

Grouped by discipline. Each entry links to the work itself.

AI

Private, university-hosted AI, and tools where auditable code produces the answer.

Zero to Hero: A Local AI Stack
A field guide to building a private AI stack on one machine
Zero to Hero is a ten-step field guide by Joshua Allen Talbott to building a private AI stack on a single machine, a Dell GB10. It covers chat, image generation, agents, code execution, web search, and scraping, all self-hosted, with no subscriptions and no data leaving the box.
Category
Guide, local AI
Hardware
Dell GB10 (NVIDIA Grace Blackwell)
Source
Open source on GitHub
Self-hosted AI Stack repository on GitHub
Related: Transpose, Hardcopy, Optical Data Bridge
Self-hosted AI Stack
The open-source configuration behind the Zero to Hero guide
The Docker Compose configuration Joshua Allen Talbott uses to run open-weight models, Open WebUI, retrieval, private search, notebooks, and image generation on local hardware.
Category
Open-source repository
Related: Zero to Hero: A Local AI Stack
Transpose
A reader that rewrites any passage at six vocabulary levels
Transpose is a reading tool by Joshua Allen Talbott. Paste any passage and read it back at six vocabulary levels, side by side: the same meaning, with the words chosen for the reader instead of the sentence.
Category
Web app, AI and literacy
Related: Zero to Hero: A Local AI Stack, Voice Tutor, Piano Tutor

Making

3D capture, digital reconstruction, and fabrication.

Libertas
An 80% scale replica of Pio Fedi's Liberty of Poetry, made for Ellis Island
Libertas is the 80% scale replica of Pio Fedi's Liberty of Poetry (1883) made at Kent State University for Sisters in Liberty at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, 2019 to 2020. Joshua Allen Talbott led the 3D capture in Florence, aligned the scans, rebuilt the crown's rays in Fusion 360, and ran the sightline, scale, and weight studies. It was a collaborative effort, and the full account credits everyone by name.
Role
3D capture lead; scan alignment; fabrication planning
Original
Pio Fedi, Liberty of Poetry, 1883, Santa Croce, Florence
Shown
Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, 2019 to 2020
Methods
Structured-light scanning, binder-jet sand printing, cast aluminum
Kent State Magazine on the Libertas scanning team Forbes on the two Liberty statues at Ellis Island
Related: Polysense, TuTTi Bar

Ventures

Products and companies, from prototype to patent filing.

TuTTi Bar
A handlebar mount for a Bluetooth speaker
TuTTi Bar is a handlebar mount for a Bluetooth speaker designed by Joshua Allen Talbott. He designed and 3D-printed the prototypes, tested them on real rides, built the brand, and wrote and filed the patent and trademark applications himself.
Role
Founder and designer
Category
Physical product
Related: VUEMesh, Libertas
VUEMesh
Automated editing across many camera feeds
VUEMesh is Joshua Allen Talbott's venture in automated multi-camera video editing, conceived around 2011. He built the proof of concept and the app, filed a utility patent, and pitched it to venture capitalists and to GoPro.
Role
Founder and CTO
Founded
2014
Related: TuTTi Bar, Optical Data Bridge
Duh Industries
The umbrella for creative-technology experiments
Duh Industries is Joshua Allen Talbott's banner for experiments that don't fit a job description, where hardware, software, sound, and story collide.
Role
Founder
duh.live, a personal video platform duh.video
Related: VUEMesh

Apps

Native and browser apps, most with no account, install, or subscription.

Energetic Alpha
An iPad app that teaches kids to trace their letters
Energetic Alpha is an iPad app that teaches children to trace their letters, written by Joshua Allen Talbott in Objective-C and released in 2018 for the studio Lucy Jr.
Role
Developer
Released
2018
Platform
iPad
Related: Energetic Numbers and Cosmic Cursive
Energetic Numbers and Cosmic Cursive
Two learning apps taken through QA, builds, and publishing
Two Unity learning apps for the same studio. Joshua Allen Talbott ran quality control, builds, and publishing to the App Store and Google Play.
Role
QA, builds, and publishing
Cosmic Cursive on the App Store
Related: Energetic Alpha
Piano Tutor
A browser piano trainer that listens as you play
Piano Tutor is a browser piano trainer by Joshua Allen Talbott. Notes fall toward a keyboard you can size to your own piano, and the song waits, listening through the microphone, until you play the right note.
Category
Web app, music learning
Related: Voice Tutor, Guitar Tuner, Transpose
Voice Tutor
A singing coach that draws your pitch as you sing
Voice Tutor is a browser singing coach by Joshua Allen Talbott. It traces your pitch in real time against the notes coming toward you, with the words cued in time, so you can see where your pitch drifts instead of guessing.
Category
Web app, music learning
Related: Piano Tutor, Guitar Tuner
Guitar Tuner
An ad-free tuner that hears which string you're playing
Guitar Tuner is an ad-free browser tuner by Joshua Allen Talbott. It hears which string you're playing, locks to it, and draws your pitch as a flowing line. It supports standard, twelve-string, half-step down, and drop tunings.
Category
Web app, music
Related: Piano Tutor, Voice Tutor
Optical Data Bridge
Open-source file transfer using animated QR codes
Optical Data Bridge is an open-source tool by Joshua Allen Talbott that moves files between devices using animated QR codes, from a screen to a camera. It includes an adaptive rate controller, integrity checks, and resumable transfers, with no network, cables, or accounts.
Category
Web app, data transfer
Status
Open source
Optical Data Bridge source code on GitHub
Related: Hardcopy, VUEMesh, Zero to Hero: A Local AI Stack
Hardcopy
Printable offline backup for any file, read back by camera
Hardcopy is a paper backup tool by Joshua Allen Talbott. It cuts any file into numbered QR tiles on ordinary printable pages, then reads the stack back into the original file with a camera, offline. Stacks can be sealed with a passphrase or printed with parity so a lost page doesn't lose the file.
Category
Web app, data preservation
Related: Optical Data Bridge, Zero to Hero: A Local AI Stack
Rise Vision Livestreams
A multi-layout livestream hub for campus digital signage
Rise Vision Livestreams is a multi-layout YouTube livestream hub Joshua Allen Talbott built for Kent State University's digital signage, with host and client synced over Socket.IO, multi-tile layouts, and mobile joiners.
Category
Web app, digital signage
Related: Polysense, Franklin Hall HD newsroom and TV2
Polysense
A first-person WebGL portfolio you move through
Polysense is an immersive first-person portfolio by Joshua Allen Talbott, built with Three.js and WebGL. You move through a series of realms, each a different layer of the work.
Category
Interactive, WebGL
Related: Libertas, Rise Vision Livestreams

Broadcast

Live television and the systems behind it.

Franklin Hall HD newsroom and TV2
Kent State student television, 2007 to 2013
Joshua Allen Talbott commissioned and ran Kent State's all-digital HD student newsroom in Franklin Hall, automating the control room so student crews could air three to five shows a day. TV2 was named College Media Association Pinnacle TV Station of the Year in 2012 and 2013.
Role
Senior Media Specialist
Years
2007 to 2013
Kent State Magazine, Summer 2008, on the Franklin Hall newsroom TV2 wins Station of the Year at the CMA awards
Related: Rise Vision Livestreams

Teaching

University courses across journalism, film, manufacturing, and emerging media.

Seven university courses
Journalism, film, manufacturing, and emerging media
Joshua Allen Talbott has taught seven courses at Kent State University: Videography Basics I and II, Avid Media Composer certification, cinema editing, Web Programming for Multimedia Journalism, Computer-Aided Manufacturing, and Creative Coding.
Years
2011 to 2022

Open work

Ideas published to teach and to provoke, not to pitch.

First Strike
A dispatch simulator for autonomous wildfire initial attack
First Strike is a dispatch simulator by Joshua Allen Talbott for an open concept in distributed rapid initial attack on wildfires: autonomous suppression aircraft staged at regional airports and launched when an ignition is verified. It is independent work for teaching, and its figures are illustrative.
Category
Simulator, open concept
Status
Independent work, personal capacity
Related: Distributed Rapid Initial Attack
Distributed Rapid Initial Attack
A concept paper on autonomous wildfire response (PDF)
A concept paper by Joshua Allen Talbott on why wildfire containment windows are missed and how a network of autonomous suppression aircraft at regional airports could close them, with Ohio as the proof of concept.
Format
PDF
Related: First Strike