tension modifier addon

I’m new to Blender programming but I want to make a modifier for vertex groups that sets the weights based on the undeformed/defored mesh. It’s a similar concept to the FStretch and SOuP’s TensionBlendShape plugins for Autodesk’s Maya. I noticed that in 2.7 there is now an option to visualize distortion on a mesh, but is there a way to access and store that data as vertex group weights?