Smile — you could be on headcam

Our personal boundaries are about to take another beating with the arrival of the wearable video camera. It tucks over the ear, films everything you see, then streams images to your mobile phone.

It promises to turn all of our lives into reality shows in which the participants don't even know they are being observed.

The devices are still in their infancy but the early models give a clear indication of the world to come. The Looxcie, for example, is designed to record five hours of footage on one battery charge. You wear it, and the moment you see something you wish to share, you can access the previous seconds and email them straight from your phone to your friends. If you're at a football match, for example, when you see a goal scored, your Looxcie has recorded it and you can send the footage right out via email, to YouTube or to your Facebook page.

In California, police are already trying them out, not only to catch criminals but in response to citizen complaints that they were being too rough during arrests. As Looxcie's marketers say, "Everybody gets the splash but nobody gets the whale — you're always just a little bit too late." What these cameras promise is a kind of DVR set to record your own life.

Athletes have been among the pioneers in this technology. GoPro cameras, which are just two inches high, record in high definition, snap into a waterproof case and were initially designed for surfers. Now they are used by skiers, drivers, cyclists and all kinds of athletes to make films that could never be made by someone having to lug round a traditional camera. One was even attached to the rescue capsule that brought the Chilean miners to the surface last month. The images were used by television stations around the world.

The GoPro and Looxcie cameras sell for around £125 but will doubtless soon drop in price. However, at the point at which they become ubiquitous, privacy issues start to arise. Should they be allowed at public performances? It makes movie piracy a cinch. If someone were to arrive at a party wearing one, do you ask them to remove it, as it makes the likelihood of filming someone without their consent that much easier than if you had to hold a camera up to their face?

The history of technology tells us that these devices will only become smaller and more powerful.