Online reviews indicate how popular your favorite place is in general, but cannot tell you whether now is a good time to drop by or if you may be stuck in a crowd or waiting in line – this is where the Density Sensor comes into play.

No need to resort to complex spatial mapping or real-time video sensors with this gadget, a people-counting device that simply tracks passages through doors (attached to the frame). Some more obvious applications include specific bars, restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses that have time-of-day and day-of-week cycles to contend with, but the same data can also help you pick the DMV or grocery store with the shortest line.

In turn, businesses can choose what data to share with customers and what to keep for optimization purposes, offering discounts during less busy times or adjusting when to open and close. Compared to non-networked break-beam technology or real-time surveillance cameras, there is no need to wait for data or face privacy concerns.

Of course, up-to-the-minute incoming and outgoing traffic are just a starting point – architecture firms, for instance, could use extended datasets to anonymously track customer or employee flows through a building and use that data to optimize going forward, shaping extensions or remodels. Ultimately, one could imagine this system being replaced by more detailed heat-mapped trackers keeping tabs on entire spaces, but for now this is a cheap solution to a long-standing problem.

Designed to span a historic canal of Amsterdam, this cutting-edge structure will bridge traditional and automatic construction techniques using continuous extrusion technology to generate three-dimensionally-complex, self-supporting steel space frames. Imagine for a moment a pair of robots scaling the very structures they are building as they build them, walking themselves out over a bridge from both sides to meet in the middle.

Having already created a series of increasingly successful small-scale prototypes, Dutch design firm Heijmans (well known for houses built in one day and glow-in-the-dark bike paths in The Netherlands), tech startup MX3D and designer Joris Laarman are working together to make this design/build concept a reality.

Programmed to extrude and weld together steel segments, specialized robotic builders are able to assemble a network of structural lines and curves to form a load-bearing bridge in this case, already the first project of its kind in the world, and could be deployed to frame tall buildings in the future as well.

The approach of casting a material in place, generally associated with concrete, is suddenly a realistic possibility for metallic substances as well. Potential applications are myriad, from public infrastructure to residential, commercial and institutional architecture.

“Construction and design are currently rather separate factors in construction – the architect designs something and the constructor interprets the design and builds what he thinks is needed,” says Jurre van der Ven, Heijmans’ Innovation Manager. “But using 3D printing for a bridge makes design and construction operate hand-in-hand. For instance, both activities are done at the same time, instead of first building the structure and then adding the design later. This means we will also have to start looking at design in a completely different manner.”

Refined and optimized, such techniques and technologies will ultimately bring down the cost of construction, reduce building waste and help automate worksites. The first real-world application being a bridge is no coincidence, but rather a “fantastic metaphor for connecting the technology of the future with the city’s historic past, in a way which would reveal the best aspects of both worlds.”

The latest contender for ‘most scary yet exciting passenger cabin ever designed’ has trumped its predecessor – the first version boasted horizontal strips of screen on both sides of the plane’s interior while this latest one features effectively see-through ceilings as well as walls.

The S-512 being developed by Spike Aerospace boasts a four-hour flight time from New York to London, in part due to the reduced engineering requirements of a windowless cabin (and leading to at top speed of 1375 MPH).

In this audacious private jet, the windows and their supporting infrastructure are instead being replaced with view screens that stitch together live footage being shot of the plane’s surroundings while it is in flight.

Meanwhile, six months later, Technicon Design has released concept drawings of Ixion, which likewise uses cameras mounted on the fuselage and wings to capture images for interior high-resolution display, but with an added dimension of also disappearing the rooftop of the cabin.

The nearly-continuous visual experience would be segmented by strips providing lights and air conditioning, and in theory the projections could be shifted on demand, from realtime scenery to other full-surround displays. For now, though, only the first is a series proposal for a real private plane – the latter is a conceptual design pushing the idea further but with no plan for actual deployment.

What if we could make alternative transportation ultimately faster, cheaper and more convenient than personally-owned cars, the dominant transport devices of the 20th Century? The sharing economy has opened new possibilities for commuters and travelers, but integrating this dizzying array of options together with public transport is an essential next step in this ongoing paradigm shift.

OMG Transit is a Minneapolis-based startup that provides free, fast and simple sets of options for getting from your location to your destination without a personal car, be it by bus, shared bike (NiceRide in the case of the Twin Cities), shared car systems like Car2Go or ZipCar or private rides along the lines of Uber or Lyft. Available as an iPhone or Android application, OMG also offers a web app version – all with no cost to the user.

Boasting a beautifully-designed interface with attention to usability, color and detail, their free-for-all approach is aimed at helping them grow faster than the competition. Their team, headed by entrepreneur and technologist Matt Decuir, has its sights set first on major cities around the US and then the world (perhaps space thereafter).

More focused on next-step options than A-to-B directions, TransitScreen started out displaying realtime  transit data in residential, commercial and institutional building lobbies. Their boards show people up-to-the-minute information on subways, commuter trains, buses, bike share, ride shares in cities around the United States.

Now, with SmartWalk, this same company has taken to the streets (or rather: sidewalks and walls) outside of offices, apartments and universities, projecting this data onto public surfaces for the benefit of anyone passing by. The data includes color-coded transit option types and times but also wayfinding cues regarding directions and distance.

Other players in this space include Roadify and RideScout, though not all offer options for all devices or for every type of regional transport. Some, like Google Maps in its current form, have broader reach but focus more on public transportation schedules (their acquisition of Waze is a step toward realtime data, albeit for personal cars). Whatever system(s) triumph, the goal is a worthy one: reducing friction in the use of alternative transit options to the point where taking, for instance, a bus to a bike to a shared car is easy, fast and cheap enough to obviate the need for a fully-owned automobile.