We have all seen blockbuster movies propelled by amazing special effects. But today’s effects makers are relying on the latest technologies to make movie-making easier and even more realistic.

The British special effects company Artem, for example, uses digital technology, 3D printers and laser scanners, among other high-tech devices, according to Bloomberg. The company is the effects maker behind the latest movie version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which was released in London earlier this week.

Several British film industry firms, including Artem, have benefitted from new rules that brought UK tax benefits to Hollywood filmmakers. Since the rules were adopted in 2013 the UK industry has seen additional revenues of more than $2 billion, and helped support major films including the Harry Potter series, Gravity and others.

Artem was founded by former BBC staff and has previously worked in television and also on stage effects for the British pop band Take That. For Macbeth, challenges included creating scenes in rain, fog, fire and mist, as well as creating a full-scale human model for a bloody, gutted character in a stabbing scene.

But not all effects make use of high-tech gadgetry. For one misty scene, the firm created a consistent misty look across a long field by forcing smoke through about a third of a mile of inflatable tubing.

The stethoscope is one of the oldest medical devices, yet the equipment’s technology hasn’t changed much in centuries. Now a California start-up is using the latest technology to bring stethoscopes into the 21st century.

This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the smart stethoscope made by Eko Technologies for use across the country, according to a CNN story. The device is the first of its kind to connect wirelessly to a smart phone, to allow doctors to record a patient’s heartbeat and transfer it efficiently to a secure app and upload it to the web.

Doctors can chart the heartbeat, allowing them to call up the patient’s record anytime, rather than relying on their memory of what sounds they heard potentially months past. They can also easily send the report to specialists who can assess the reading, so patients won’t need to make another appointment or wait unduly for an evaluation.

Eko also hopes to create software that can analyze heartbeats to aid in diagnosis and treatment. The company is currently conducting trials to test such projects in two San Francisco hospitals, on both adult and child patients. If successful, those trials would enter the FDA clinical process in 2016.

Politicians have offered dozens of solutions to America’s impoverished cities, rarely with much success. Now a New Jersey nonprofit is hoping that technology training will help address one tough city’s challenges.

Camden New Jersey has long been known as an underdeveloped, poor neighbor to Philadelphia, the major city just across the Ben Franklin Bridge. But the nonprofit youth services group Hopeworks N’Camden believes that training in coding can help the town’s young people and bring benefits to Camden as well, according to an AP story.

This weekend the group is holding its first “hackathon” bringing together professional developers with local young people who want to learn computer coding. Some of the IT professionals will be from Subura, which has announced it will be moving its North American headquarters to Camden.

Hopeworks plans to use the hackathon events, which they hope to host every six months, to help support local government and business technology needs, in addition to training the young people. A local government agency, for example, could request a new website that would be built by a team put together at an event.

In addition to Subaru, other area companies committed to working with the project include the nuclear technology company Holtec, American Water, and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.

The sight of soldiers returning from overseas with amputated limbs is all too familiar. But now an Indiana company is developing synthetic blood vessels that they hope could save many people who otherwise would need to have an amputation.

The company, Techshot Inc, creates the vessels for human use with the same types of polymers currently used in biodegradable sutures, according to a USA Today story. The material, from salmon fibrinogen, is spun to produce tubes and imprinted with stem cells from the patient’s fat cells. The salmon material is favored as it is 99 percent similar to human fibrinogen and avoids any cross-disease risks.

In months, the body absorbs the artificial material and using the stem cells, creates a natural new blood vessel.

On the battlefield, the artificial vessels could prove useful when soldiers suffer multiple limb injuries that make it difficult for surgeons to use the patient’s own blood vessels to avoid amputation. In 2011, 67 percent of wounds suffered by U.S. soldiers involved the limbs.

The technology could also prove useful to civilian patients, such as diabetics who often do not have useable blood vessels due to the degeneration of their limbs from the disease.

Techshot plans to begin preliminary testing of the technology this year with human trails beginning in 2017.

Beginning in 2016, when you hail a cab in one part of Japan, you may not need to tip the driver.

The Japanese company Robot Taxi Inc. said it has reached a deal with the Kanagawa prefecture just south of Tokyo on a pilot program for its new driverless taxis, according to a Wall Street Journal story.

The cab rides will go about 2 miles, and be offered to just fifty people to start, primarily for trips from their homes to local grocery stores and shops. While the taxis will be driverless, a company staff member will be aboard every trip, in case the need arises for human control.

Robot Taxi Inc is a joint venture of DeNA Company, a mobile internet firm and ZMP Inc, which brings its knowledge of vehicle development. The company hopes to commercialize their autonomous taxi more widely by 2020, ultimately offering the service in areas where public transportation is currently lacking. The company also hopes to offer services for tourists to Japan.

The son of former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who serves as a vice minister in the current government, helped promote the pilot project at a recent event.

Robot Taxi joins Google as among the first companies to launch driverless taxis. Google is currently testing its service in Texas.

The smart home revolution, with wireless devices that wirelessly sense your needs and communicate with each other, is on the horizon. Now Google is seeking to be the central controller of your future smart home.

Google owned Nest is touting its new Weave technology that the company says will provide lower power, more secure, and cheaper wireless communication than other systems, according to Forbes. What’s more, the Weave system won’t fail when your wireless goes down, so products in your smart home can continue to communicate on the Weave network when other systems may shut down.

Nest has already created the successful “learning thermostat” for energy efficient home heating and cooling, and earlier this year launched its “Works with Nest” program that allows outside developers to create devices that can communicate with Nest products through the cloud.

But the Weave system will allow direct communication with Nest products, relying on radio chips that are already used in Nest products.

The Yale lock company will be the first to partner with Nest in the new technology. Using a Weave-enabled pin code lock, Nest will be able to manage the lock’s smartphone capabilities and will even be able to act as a smoke detector, warning users by voice about carbon monoxide risks in the home.

The sight of unmanned drones overhead is becoming more commonplace, and has sparked concerns about privacy and aviation safety. But federal officials say that regulated drone use may have to wait until next spring.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had planned this week to announce rules restricting the use of drones, but the agency failed to meet its deadline and now says the rules will be out late in the spring of 2016, according to an NBC News story.

The FAA posted its proposed rules in February, but final rules have been delayed as the agency reviews 4,500 public comments. This week, a letter from industry groups to the FAA claimed that integrating drones into airspace with favorable regulations would promote creation of 100,000 jobs and boost the economy with $82 billion in drone-related spending.

The groups warned that slow progress by the FAA was leaving the U.S. drone industry behind other countries.

But an FAA spokesman reiterated the agency’s key focus on safety, stating that drones can be integrated

Currently drone operators are required to seek an agency exemption in order to legally fly their crafts in U.S. airspace. About 1,800 such exemptions have been granted, according to the FAA.