Good Morning America on Velvet for March 20

MAGIC MIRROR
We've all heard the phrase "Mirror Mirror, on the wall," but what if that
mirror could also tell you what you'll look like if you keep up certain
habits? We all have bad habits but some are more aging than others. Now new
technology reflects those back at you, and lets you peek into the future.
Jon Melko has some good habits. "I'm very active. If I'm not working, I'm
usually in the water diving, swimming, or fishing," he said. But he has
some bad habits, too. "Smoking, occasionally drinking. Social drinker, fast
food -- because i'm always on the go." Knowing that those aren't healthy
habits, he wonders what the toll will be on his body a couple years from
now if he keeps it up. Now a special digital device may have his answer
"Rather than simply provide reflection, what it does is make a
transformation on the image and show it back to the person. And, that
transformation is intended to approximate what somebody might look like if
somebody continues to engage in a prolonged set of behaviors," said Andrew
Fano, Accenture Labs. It's called a persuasive mirror. Under development by
Accenture Labs, the hope is people will be able to see how they'll look in
the future, and maybe change behaviors because of it. "A picture is worth a
thousand warnings," Fano said. Here's how it works: you answer a list of
questions about your habits, from exercise to how much TV you watch,
whether you smoke, and what you eat. All that info is input into a special
software program, which then matches it to pictures taken by digital
cameras connected to the mirror. "What we do to make the mirror aspect of
this work is interpolate an intermediate image. And, it's on this
intermediate image that we apply a series of transformations that are
intended to show the effect of certain behaviors," Fano said. But this is
no toy. The lab sees this mirror as a tool for health providers in the
future. Researchers at U.C. San Diego recently put it to the test. They
just completed a study to see how persuasive the mirror might be in the
fight against childhood obesity. "This is a common problem that needs a new
way of thinking about it," said health researcher Jeannie Huang. The mirror
can work on any age group and on various behaviors. The concept can be very
convincing. As for Jon, he says it might work. The results of the study
done at UCSD won't be out until May. Then, they'll take that information
and continue to fine tune the mirror before they are able to take it to the
rest of medical community.

SPRING COOKING WITH G
G. Garvin is back and here to whip up a super simple (but delicious) meal.
GUEST: G. GARVIN

SPRING AWAKENING
The cast of the Broadway hit, Spring Awakening, performs live in our
studio.