Z-4190 bubble shield

The Bubble Shield or Shield Grenade was first seen in the Halo 3 "Starry Night" CGI Trailer. Since Bungie stated that all assets in the commercial were produced by them, it is safe to say this device will show up in the game. Frankie has said that the shield is ONI tech.

On top of the device is a safety cover, which can be flipped up to expose the red activiation button. After that, it emits a charging sound and upon resting on the ground for a short time, creates the shield. The shield itself is a Buckminster Fuller sphere made of tessellating hexagons.

Speculation
When the staff of EGM magazine played a Halo 3 multiplayer beta, they mentioned that the "x" button had no function. One of the Bungie staff asked to another, "How many times did you press X?" and the other answered "Like 40 times, I wish this was activated." Maybe the shield is enabled by the X button.

Frankie stated that the shield grenade is not necessarily a grenade. This could mean that you can activate it, pick it up again, wait for it to recharge and use it again. It also might have a time limit or a specific amount of damage it can take before it deactivates.

Considering humanity's current level of technology, it seems quite possible that as with the standard MJOLNIR shields, this was created by reverse-engineering covenant shield technology.