Whether this will suddenly start appearing in ork plases (let alone homes) near you is another question: it is still expensive and complex, but do not be surprised if you find one snaking through your office building sometime soon.

However quickly technology evolves, we will still always need systems to convey people up and down through everything from houses to skyscrapers. It was only a matter of time before someone stepped things up with an innovation like this one: the flexibly curving escalator, possible future rival to the classic spiral staircase.

In fact, this is not the first design of its kind, but it represents a significant step forward in the direction of fully customizable shapes for human conveyance systems – this variant by engineer Jack Levy can wind and twist in ways none of its predecessors could possibly rival.

Notable sets of spiral escalators are located in the San Francisco Shopping Centre in San Francisco, California, and at Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Times Square shopping mall in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, also features four curved escalators, as does Wheelock Place in Singapore.

Escalators are one of the largest, most expensive machines people use on a regular basis, but they're also one of the simplest.

At its most basic level, an escalator is just a simple variation on the conveyer belt. A pair of rotating chain loops pull a series of stairs in a constant cycle, moving a lot of people a short distance at a good speed.