News: Mobile App Like Gives Music Video Auteurs Body-Morphing AR Effects

Usually, the camera adds 10 pounds, but with a new augmented reality effect in Like's mobile app, the camera can actually make you look slimmer.

Called "Shaping Magic," the body recognition effect uses artificial intelligence to modify the width of the user's body or selectively augment the shape of their head, shoulders, waist, hips, or legs.

The new feature is reminiscent of the Lens feature on Snapchat that comically contorts a user's faces in a pre-configured manner. With Shaping Magic, Like gives would-be vloggers the ability to fully customize their appearance. The result is more funhouse mirror than Industrial Light & Magic, but what more would you expect from a free mobile app?

"Any Like user can create the perfect video highlighted by their own definition of beauty – which they control," said Aaron Wei, senior vice president of BIGO Technology, the company behind the app, in a statement. "Like and our parent company, BIGO Technology are dedicated to being the first to ensure that everyone can experience free AI and AR technology as conveniently and easily as possible."

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All users worldwide will receive the new feature for free; it is available now via an update on the App Store, but it has yet to arrive on the Play Store as of this writing.

One of Next Reality's Best 50 AR apps, Like's AR video camera combines the social sharing and music video creation capabilities of Music.ly with augmented reality effects. In addition to the new body-modification features, Like packs face detection and tracking, skeleton tracking, background segmentation, and sound recognition capabilities that give users a full arsenal of augmented reality video effects.

"With hundreds of unique special effects, Like is empowering video creators to effortlessly turn their imagination into reality, whatever it may be, quickly and at no cost," said Wei.

While Facebook and Snapchat lead the way in terms of this kind of user-generated content, increasingly, augmented reality is giving numerous other developers the opportunity to attract users by employing tools that make photos and videos unique.

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