In reply to Pan Ron:
> Off-topic, but this has been a fascinating thread; apparent experts wading in with absolute certainty over the rights and wrongs of an approach to an issue...
I don’t see a single respondent on this thread claiming to be an expert with regards potential dangers (what you call “wrongs”). I see people sharing what is so clearly either their personal experiences of their opinions that it doesn’t need labelling as such.
I absolutely support the OPs motivations to find ways to engage people. Technology is a powerful platform for that. I have been involved in discussions on scoping out an app to record introspective stats and activity levels for monitoring and predicting depressive episodes. As part of that I have gained a phobia of unintended consequences. Then along comes a radio piece obout fitness trackers encouraging eating and exercise disorders - confirmation bias for my phobias perhaps... The OPs query resonated with a lot of that.
Even managed to minimise the chance of harm, I worry that a computer slimmed version of a person may not represent an achievable goal given the environmental and genetic variability of weight loss. I’m not convinced showing someone an unachievable “goal” is going to be beneficial in the long run.
An alternative app approach is to ask a set of questions about how someone feels about themselves before and after engaging in the activity. Does this show them some evidence that the activity has had an effect? It’s less gee whiz and it’s no use getting an individual to engage first time around.
> I find it a bit sad that potentially good ideas can be struck down by the crowd so easily.
The crowd is striking nothing down. The OP has a bunch of feedback they can dig in to and apply to their idea; this allows them to test and strengthen their idea.
Normally you have to pay people one way or another to help develop an idea. Of course, you get what you pay for...
Edit: I imagine plastic surgeons have exactly this software and use it as part of their marketing and sales strategy. Of course they can choose where to suck fat from to work to the software’s output...
Post edited at 21:44