Craig Kaplan and Robert Bosch turned the Traveling Salesman Problem - a famous and important problem from computer science - in to a way of rendering halftone images, called TSP Art.

The goal of the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is, given a list of cities, to determine the shortest tour that visits each city exactly once. The ability to solve this problem is important in a variety of fields, from logistics planning to electronics to DNA sequencing. Kaplan and Bosch generate "cities" with a density proportional to the density of an image and then apply the TSP. Two properties of the approximate solution they find make this visualization work -- first, the density of the routing tends to mirror the density of the cities (and thus the density of the original picture), and second, the path never crosses itself (which gives the result a unique look).

TSP Art: short version or the full paper (pdf).

via hacker news

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Robert Schneider modified a Mindflex EEG toy to become the Teletron, a theremin that plays a Moog analog synth via thought control. The second video shows how to do it. [Via Pitchfork, thanks Jeremy!]

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Thing about old folding tables is, the tops (which are usually made of cheap particle board) tend to wear out much faster than the legs (which are usually made of steel). So the world is full of old folding tables with mutilated tops and perfectly serviceable legs. If you know where to look, good-looking hollow-core doors can be had for a song, and make for great replacement tabletops for those old folding legs if you know how to mount them correctly. Here's how I did it, using XRS Molly bolts with expanding adhesive foam blown in for reinforcement.

More:

• Make: Projects — Install a penny countertop
• Make: Projects — Plywood coffee table
• Make: Projects — Custom computer desk

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Evan Roth wants a Graffiti Markup Language tag recorder badly enough to pay 1200 euros for one.

GML Field Recorder Challenge
An easily reproducible DIY device that can unobtrusively record graffiti motion data during a graffiti writer's normal practice in the city.

Project Description and Design Requirements: The GML Field Recorder Challenge is a DIY hardware and software solution for unobtrusively recording graffiti motion data during a graffiti writer's normal practice in the city. The winning project will be an easy to follow instruction set that can be reproduced by graffiti writers and amateur technologists. The goal is to create a device that will document a night of graffiti bombing into an easily retrievable series of Graffiti Markup Language (.gml) files while not interfering with the normal process of writing graffiti. The solution should be easy to produce, lightweight, cheap, secure, and require little to no setup and calibration. Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Culture jamming | Digg this!

It's a LEGO world, we just live in it. 'Miracle on the Hudson' to be featured...

Several large exhibits built with Lego blocks will be on display Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 at the Clermont County Fairgrounds. Ken Osbon of Goshen Township, one of the organizers of the event, will have one scene depicting the Miracle on the Hudson airliner crash in New York City. Another scene will be based on the "Deadliest Catch" television show.

Bill Lynch, who is promoting the event with Osbon, said he will display a farm scene with barns, tractors, farm houses, bridges and a train. A Columbus-based club, the Central Ohio Lego Train Club, will feature a city with a train running through it, Osbon said.
"They have done quite a few shows in Columbus," he said.

A recently-formed Tristate group, the Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana Lego Users Group, will have a display based on a pirate scene. Osbon said the show, BrickExpo 2010, will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the 4-H Hall at the fairgrounds in Stonelick Township.

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This is a blast from the past, an old school "Classic Castle" fortress. It looks like someone made this in 1975, but it still rocks! I love how the creator has as story to tell about each room. Follow the link above and click on "Start the Tour" to learn more about Hoernersburg.

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This gregor calendar by Patrick Frey seems to be the spiritual opposite of the knitting clock that we covered previously. Instead of creating a garment to mark the passage of time, this one works by unraveling a tapestry that the dates are printed on.

Perhaps both ideas could be combined, to create a calender that perpetually renews itself? [via dude craft]

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Pete McKenna and Steve McGrath, with help from others, have built a multi-tool CNC at the Hack Factory in Minneapolis. It began as a CNC inspection machine that someone donated to the hackerspace. When I was at the HF on Wednesday the guys had it set up to draw with a Sharpie, and they also tested out a rotary tool as well. After I left, they attached Jon Barclay's blue laser and did some etching with that. The results aren't as slick as we'd like but the guys have made great progress. In the Twin Cities area? Come by during one of our open houses, held weekly on Wednesdays at 7pm.

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The $5 iPhone Microscope Mod by Crabfu!

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It's a great honor for me to be able to use this Maker Birthdays forum to offer up an entry-day shout-out to one of my favorite living makers, Jeri Ellsworth.

If ever there was someone for whom the fire for making appears to have been blazing since birth, it's Jeri. She seems to live for the diverse pleasures of deconstructing, learning about, and re-engineering the world around her. She's lived several impressive careers already: dirt-track racer and race car designer, computer-chain store owner, self-taught computer chip designer, creator of the C-One and C64-DTV systems, and Internet streaming video star (as half of Fatman and Circuit Girl). Of all of the things that amaze me about Jeri Ellsworth, I'm most inspired by the depth of her curiosity and her enthusiasm for sharing her discoveries with others.

Happy Birthday, Jeri, from all of your pals at MAKE! We actually got you a little something. We hope you like it. (It's after the jump...)

BTW: The picture on the right is Jeri showing off her singed index finger after an unfortunate encounter with some homemade rocket fuel.

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Chicago artist Kris DeGraeve tweeted:
I needed (2) 12" clamps, but I made (6) 4" clamps do the job.

Great work!

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Yes, sometimes simplicity is king. But other times, you want your tools to have so many moving parts and adjusty bits that people will stop and stare. If you find yourself in the latter position, this freaky Expand-O pliers from Strong Hand Tools may be what you need.

via Toolmonger

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Fun LED binary calculator via Syst3mX writes -

You can't calculate binary values "as is" on most handheld calculators and using the windows one is just a pain, so i decided to make my very own (binary only) calculator. This calculator supports all the basic functions like : NOT,OR,AND,XOR, addition,subtraction,multiplication,division and modulo.

So join me as we are going to enter the world of ones and zeros and play with some LEDs and switches along the way! Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!

While visiting Pumping Station: One in Chicago, I noticed that member Tomer had a curious device: a soldering iron that plugged into his laptop. I was skeptical about how well it could work, so I asked if I could give it a try. A few minutes later, I had a potentiometer, wire, and solder in hand, and was ready to give it a go.

The iron has connections to use two USB ports to draw lots of power. It heated up quickly on my Thinkpad laptop, though I suspect that results might vary based on how closely the computer manufacturer follows the USB spec. Though quite light, the iron was pretty solid, and maintained a good amount of heat while I soldered some wire leads onto a potentiometer. It apparently doesn't come with a stand, but Tomer's solution of using a binder clip worked quite well.

My conclusion? I don't think I would recommend it as a first iron, and it won't be replacing my trusty bench-top unit any time soon, however I could see picking one up to keep in my backpack when traveling with prototype hardware.

This particular model is from an apparently no-name company, and is branded as 'mega-power'. Getlofi sells them for about $25. Have you tried this one or a similar device? Do you hate the co-opting of USB ports for powering things they were never meant to power? Let us know in the comments!

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Life-long maker Matt Gryczan conceived of and documented the how-to for the Gyrocar in the current issue of MAKE, Volume 23, and I had the privilege of meeting him and his family at Maker Faire Detroit in July. Matt worked the MAKE booth with us all weekend, and his enthusiasm for sharing knowledge never waned despite the long hours. We recently asked him 10 questions about his inspirations, the Gyrocar design, and the future of Michigan. Here's what he shared with us.

1. Tell us about yourself. How did you get started making things?
When I was in fourth grade, my older brothers at Christmas got the Kenner toy kits for making things: the two that come to mind were the hydrodynamics set and the skyrail set. From then on, I was hooked on technology. Soon after, I followed instructions in an old book from the local library on how to build a battery and solenoid, and I've been making things from scratch ever since.

2. How did you go about coming up with and designing the Gyrocar?
I'd seen a photo of an antique toy of a jockey riding a horse that was kept upright by a string-pull gyroscope, and I thought it would be fun to make a contemporary version that was battery powered. Anyone who has played with a string-pull gyroscope knows how quickly they run down.

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Here are a few of our favorite new offerings on Make:Projects. If you haven't registered yet, done a project, or posted one, what are you waiting for? Here's how to get started.

Projects from MAKE magazine and Make: Online: Playable Pac-Man Costume
Halloween will be sneaking up and scaring the stuffing out of you before you know it. Time to get started on your costume, especially if you want it to be as epic as this playable Pac-Man costume, from the pages of our MAKE Halloween special edition.

Crooked Knife
Tim Anderson, writer of MAKE's "Heirloom Technology" column, shows you how to make your own version of a northern nomad's woodworking tool. From MAKE Volume 22.

All the northern tribes in North America and Asia have their own version of it. My farm relatives use them to trim their horse's hooves. I think that whatever wave of invaders brought horse culture to Europe must have brought this style of knife with them.

Ball-in-Cage Alarm Switch
Sean Ragan fabricates this cool mechanical switch which can be used to control an alarm (or anything else you want to be motion-triggered).

User-Contributed Projects

Origami Spinner
On the heels of our electronic origami project comes another paper-folding project -- building a 6-numbered spinner from a single sheet of paper using only folding.

There are plenty more projects, recipes, tutorials and primers to be had on Make: Projects!

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Rob Cockerham--who has previously brought us spring shoes, a sweet Doc Ock costume, and How Much is Inside?, among other delights--wanted to serve a six-pack out of a solid block of ice. The block had to be cast with openings that would hold the bottles tightly but still let them slip loose when somebody wanted one. It took a bit of trial and error, but he eventually got the process figured out. The whole story is here. Rob hasn't tried it yet, but he thinks, as I do, that one of these will probably float in a swimming pool fully loaded. Nice work, Rob! [via Boing Boing]

More:

• Beer bottles with tuning levels printed on labels
• Hacker Trifecta: iPad, Arduino, kegerator combined in single device
• Reblown bottle glasses
• Basement kegerator with kitchen tap

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Alan Argondizza of Ithaca, NY, wrote in to share the super cool skateboards that he builds from scratch using sheets of birch plywood cut with a jigsaw and hand-held router, then decorated by hand with paint pens, spray paint, and sharpies. Interested in making your own? Alan's provides an excellent how-to on his site.

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Nick Brewer's looking for support for his documentary on kickstarter:

Last December, in 70 cities across four continents, thousands gathered to celebrate Santacon. There are rules... you must wear a Santa suit, or some other holiday attire, a hat is not enough. Santa has to act like Santa, being jolly, handing out gifts, playing reindeer games, etc.

I decided to build a robot Santa suit for New York's Santacon in 2009. A month and a few hundred dollars later, it was done. The finished product stood almost seven feet tall, featured a box mounted on the chest that activated a voice changer, had Christmas lights around the arms, and a fan for the rocket pack on the back (Robot Santa doesn't need reindeer). The whole thing went over really well.

This year, myself and some friends are going to build a better robot Santa costume, film the building process, and then Santacon itself, for a short documentary in HD.

A portion of the funds will go directly to building the robot itself, but a large chunk is devoted to equipment and crew costs. Anybody who is forced to spend a day surrounded by thousands of very loud Santas while holding a heavy camera deserves some compensation. Same with the editor, who will have to use breakneck speed to finish the film before Christmas.

More:

• Knitted Santa Motorcycle Helmet
• Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Santa Claus Machines
• HOW TO - Make a Halloween hangman (Dancing Santa hack)
• Holiday Project: Santa Peanut

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Yaskawa-kun is a Japanese robot that serves ice cream, and even has a twitter account. Now I'm hungry! [via Laughing Squid]

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