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There's only so much value in this type of digital manipulation - I'd bet my job as a photo editor, that upon enlargement, too much a shift in perspective will be easy to spot, if not on the subject then likely on BG objects - notice that the main examples are on a plain BG - or in the case of the outdoor shot, a very blurred BG. Since a bitmapped image can only be adjusted with careful selection of the correct pixels, I don't believe an algorithm has been created that can easily discern a car from a person in a bitmap, so I suppose it's an all or nothing filter, distorting the whole image - too much will look absurd. I would also bet that as the subject fills the frame - so to speak, that the effect loses utility - I'd bet on close headshots anything more than a dab will distort the image badly. It really is a stupid idea, this slimming filter - not just because of vanity or low self esteem,, but on the culpability of a virtual existence, where myspace is the community and what we present in RGB is who we are. David Foster Wallace explores this in Infinite Jest, if I recall, explaining (and this is the future now) why video telephony ultimately fails on the consumer level.
but I don't want to spoil it for you...
