China-made ball-sized camera to give video streamers the make-over they have been pouting for

As the audience reach for China’s fast-growing live streaming video industry widens, one Shenzhen-based start-up has developed a device to that enhances people’s looks in real time when broadcasting their lives to the web.

The company will launch the camera in November. The camera, which uses an independently developed chipset to handle the processing, is the size of a table-tennis ball and is designed for young Chinese obsessed with posting “beautified” selfies on social media.

More than just a good selfie tool, the device perform real-time removal of blemishes, makes faces slimmer, whitens skin and enlarges the eyes all in real time as they hold live broadcasts, said Nick Hui, who comes from Hong Kong and is the founder of the company.

“The device will be the first of its kind on the market,” Hui said. “Using it to live stream, you will appear more beautiful than usual. This is a must-have function for those broadcasting live videos and messages to their followers,” he said.

Hui said the device’s onboard chip – which was designed in-house – carries out its image processing on every frame of video being broadcast – usually 30 frames per second – through a patented algorithm that also conducts facial recognition, as well as complexion improvements, face slimming and eye brightening.