Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. Photo Galleries
  4. News

This bullet-dampening device makes police guns less lethal, could save lives

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

In science fiction, heroes often have the ability to set their guns to stun. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in real life, but there’s at least one company in the world looking to change that.

San Diego-based outfit Alternative Ballistics has developed an innovative new firearm attachment that could give officers the ability to dampen their bullets and make them less lethal, potentially preventing unnecessary deaths during the apprehension of suspects.

The device, dubbed The Alternative, is a small plastic clip that can quickly be attached to the business end of an officer’s handgun. When the officer fires a bullet, it buries itself inside a metal ball, which detaches from the clip and is propelled forward at about one fifth of the bullet’s original velocity. Due to the secondary projectile’s larger surface area and lower speed, it can deliver a blow to a person without penetrating their body.

Alternative Ballistics 3D Product Intro - The Alternative In Lethal Force.

But that’s not to say it doesn’t cause any damage. Speaking to CNN, Alternative Ballistics CEO Christian Ellis stressed that getting hit with The Alternative isn’t exactly a walk in the park. “It’s gonna feel like you had a professional baseball player hit you in the chest with a hammer,” he explained, “so it is going to hurt.” The thinking is that this should be enough to suppress a dangerous person, without putting holes in them.

If this non-lethal projectile isn’t enough to stop an assailant, however, the Alternative is designed to immediately give officers the ability to fire regular bullets again. Each clip is single-use and will completely detach from an officer’s firearm after the first shot.

The technology has intrigued dozens of police departments across the nation. One of the first places its been deployed is Ferguson, Missouri, where a police officer shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown last August.

It’s definitely not without its fair share of flaws — Can an officer break this out in time? Is there room for yet another item to hang from an officer’s belt?— but at first glance, The Alternative seems like it could definitely be a useful tool for reducing unnecessary shootings.

Drew Prindle
Drew Prindle
Former Senior Editor, Features
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Topics
Checking body medication levels may now be as easy as sucking on a peach-flavoured lollipop
Forget the clinic swab; this lollipop wants a lick
Lollylab

Checking your body’s medication levels is usually no one’s idea of fun. Now researchers are trying to change that with Lollylab, a candy-coated, lollipop-like device that can collect saliva and measure levels of acetaminophen in under two minutes.

The prototype created by researchers whose work was published in ACS Sensors transforms a familiar object into a miniature testing device. In a pilot study, six adults ingested the peach-flavored Lollylab before and one hour after a standard 650-milligram dose of acetaminophen. The device repeatedly detected the pain reliever in their saliva, and participants reported it was more comfortable and easier to use than traditional saliva swabs.

Read more
A US state just approved an AI doctor. For now, it’ll only prescribe acne cures.
Aside from acne, Nolla's AI can also handle redness, fine lines and wrinkles, hyperpigmentation and dark spots, and under-eye bags.
Nolla Derm AI doctor app.

The first AI doctor is here. Despite all the skepticism and risks associated with AI models going haywire, the state of Utah just approved Nolla Health, a company that is providing an AI healthcare expert capable of writing prescriptions without any human in the chain. For now, it will only write acne prescriptions for Utah residents over 18 years of age, willing to pay a token monthly subscription fee that's lighter than your Spotify bill.

The big push here is that the Nolla Derm app will reduce the costs of medical consultation, save users the hassle of clinic visits, and take out the problem of waitlisting from the entire healthcare equation. “Unlike telehealth platforms that use AI only to collect information before handing patients off to clinicians, Nolla's AI system is designed to independently issue initial prescriptions within tightly defined, physician-approved treatment protocols,” writes the company. 

Read more
AI’s massive appetite could make cheap smartphones much harder to find
The smartphone aisle is getting pricier, and AI may be partly to blame.
Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone

Buying a genuinely cheap smartphone could soon become a lot harder, and the reason has little to do with what’s happening inside the smartphone industry itself. The enormous amount of hardware being poured into AI data centers is pressuring global memory supplies. That has helped drive up the cost of making phones, and manufacturers appear increasingly reluctant to absorb those extra costs at the cheapest end of the market.

According to Counterpoint Research, prices of existing smartphones have increased by around 15% globally this year, while newly launched devices are roughly 25% more expensive than comparable models from last year. The impact hasn't been equal everywhere, either. Smartphone prices have climbed 21% in India and 19% across Asia-Pacific, compared with just 5% in the US.

Read more