Crime

Tensions always run high between sports fans of rival teams on game day. But a new study shows that the rise of legalized sports betting in the US is turning those tensions into something far darker.

If you were a lowlife scumbag looking for someone to attack, you would likely avoid anyone who was wearing prominent front and rear video cameras. Well, that's exactly what the Urban Eyes vest brings to runners and other solo adventurers.

This 125-kg (276-lb) robotic ball looks – and acts – like it could've broken free from the Batpod. It's a self-balancing sphere that can chase down criminals at up to 35 km/h (22 mph) on land or water, and strike with a range of non-lethal weapons.

Sometimes, violent people rein in their aggressive behavior if they know they're being recorded on video. Whipping out your phone and filming them, however, may make things even worse. That's where the PhoneCam is intended to come in.

With US car thefts up 25.1% since 2019, it's clear that high-tech key fob immobilizers aren't cutting the mustard. But this might: UMich researchers have created a charmingly low-tech anti-theft device that turns the whole car into a security keypad.

It's a sad fact that mass shootings have become a common occurrence in the US. Defense tech company Axon has announced what it says will be a new means of resolving such incidents quickly and relatively safely, using a drone equipped with a Taser.

If you hear gunshots in an urban setting, it's important to get the police to their source as quickly as possible. A new system is being developed to help, by combining autonomous drones with an existing shot-locating technology.

Location-based augmented reality games are expanding into all kinds of avenues. Eastern Market Murder tasks players with solving a century-old true crime mystery in the actual locations where it all went down. New Atlas hit the streets to try it out.

The Epilepsy Foundation is striking back against a campaign by Twitter trolls to flood some hashtags with flashing GIFs designed to trigger seizures in vulnerable individuals. The cyber-attacks follow on from a similar attack on a journalist in 2016.

Although Tasers are an effective alternative to the use of lethal force by police officers, getting shot by one is still quite a painful experience. That's where the BolaWrap 100 comes in – when fired at a "difficult" suspect, it simply ties them up.

Misadventure in Little Lon is a location-based, augmented reality mobile game that asks players to help solve a century-old crime by walking the real-world streets of Melbourne, Australia, and talking to virtual characters. New Atlas goes hands-on.

​It's a sad fact that pedophiles often hang out in online chatrooms, looking to strike up conservations with unsuspecting children. In the worst cases, they arrange face-to-face meetings, resulting in sexual assault. A new algorithm, however, is designed to help keep that from happening.