New York, YOU can shoot compelling video these days even when you have your hands full.

Small, lightweight, hands-free cameras — worn on a headband, for example, or tucked over an ear — will record life’s memorable moments as they unfold, even if you are busy holding your infant son or erupting in cheers at your daughter’s basketball game. And by attaching one of these cameras to your snowboard, you can even capture your own amazing race down a mountainside.

Cameras worn on helmets or harnesses have been popular during the last decade for specialised uses like skydiving or auto racing. But a new generation of devices that cost around $200 (less than `10,000), some of them recording in high-definition, may move wearable cameras into the mainstream, offering a new dimension in first-person documentation.

The cameras are likely to be very popular for both business and recreational use, said Mr Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard Law School and a co-founder of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society. “People will put them on and wear them everywhere,” he predicted.

The GoPro HD Hero 960 ($179.99 or little more than `8,000), introduced in late September, records high-definition video at 1,280 x 960 pixels and 30 frames a second. This small cube of a camera — it’s less than two inches high — snaps into a waterproof case. Combined, the camera and case weigh less than six ounces, said Mr Nicholas Woodman, founder and chief executive of GoPro in Half Moon Bay, California. The lens can capture photos or video at an ultrawide, 170-degree angle, and the camera comes with a headband as well as plastic plates that can attach it to flat or curved surfaces.

The initial GoPro cameras were marketed for sports, beginning with a wrist-worn, film-based version for surfers in 2004. But since then, GoPro’s evolving line has proved to have hundreds of other applications that the company never imagined, he said.

“We usually learn about them when we see the videos on YouTube or on CNN,” he said. Recently, for example, the staff clustered around a laptop to view video captured by a GoPro camera fastened to the elevator rescuing the trapped Chilean miners.

The Looxcie ($199 or less than `10,000), a small wearable
camcorder introduced recently, loops over the ear. The camera is built into a Bluetooth headset that streams digital images wirelessly to Android phones that use a free Looxcie app. From there, the clips can go directly to e-mail, said Mr Romulus Pereira, CEO of Looxcie, which is based in Sunnyvale, California. The Looxcie is not a high-definition camera. It records at a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels at 15 frames a second. But it has a special button that makes it ideal for taking video of unexpected moments, Mr Pereira said.

When the camera is running in continuous-capture mode, and the wearer suddenly sees a goal scored at a hockey game, for instance, a quick push of the button will tell the camera to automatically save a clip of the preceding 30 seconds.

Then the footage of the puck sailing into the net can be preserved and automatically e-mailed to friends. It weighs about an ounce and stores up to five hours of video. As wearable cameras gain popularity, and as some amateur auteurs capture candid images of people with no wish to star on the Internet, the devices are sure to raise privacy and other issues, said Professor Zittrain of Harvard. “What will we do then?” he asked. “Ban them at basketball games and recitals?”

With proper procedures, though, the cameras could yield a trove of valuable evidence, helping future historians analyse what life was like.