0 Electrified BodyGuard glove for police officers, corrections departments and the military

This crime-fighting glove, coated in ballistic nylon and packing both a high voltage stunner and a video camera, seems like the sort of wrist accessory that Batman would choose.

But if inventor and noted cameraman David Brown has anything to do with it, it could be the go-to glove for police officers, corrections departments and the military in the near future.

It's called The BodyGuard (not least because actor Kevin Costner is an active investor in the project), and is designed to deter violence, rather than dole it out. Brown hopes that the glove's HD camera, and its watchful green laser pointer, will make criminals think twice before escalating the action.

If that doesn't work, the crackling half a 500,000 volt spark-arc that dances between the glove's twin electrodes should do the trick. By pulling a safety pin and pressing a pressure-sensitive button in the glove's palm, a bridge of sparking electricity appears above the knuckles.

If all else fails, the police officer can finally subdue the subject with a swift, incapacitating grip or electrified attack. It can, a corporate image of the device says, "deliver high voltage to the aggressor to attempt to bring them into compliance".

How It Works (click for large)

There's also a torch and plenty of real estate for other technologies and components. Brown mentions biometrics, GPS and communications, while an early render of the glove, seen on ArmStar's about page, even shows an iPhone docked into the wrist's underside.

Brown and Costner came up with the idea following a mountain lion attack in Orange County, California, in 2004. Brown thought up the Iron Man-styled glove as a protection weapon that you can't drop or have taken off you. Seven years and 30 prototypes later, and the device is almost ready for launch.

The glove was shown off in the 2011 Mock Prison Riots (an annual event where new enforcement equipment is debuted). The first demo unit will be released to the Los Angeles sheriff's department later this year, says Popular Science -- which just named the BodyGuard glove one of its inventions of the year.