The experience on Focusmate is akin to working with a buddy at a library or cafe.
As far as pre-commitment: I think you've got your behavioral triggers mixed up.
Wikipedia has a good definition: "Precommitment refers to a strategy that an agent may use to restrict the number of choices available to him or her at a future time. The strategy may also involve the imposition of obstacles or additional costs to certain courses of action in advance."
I think you're thinking about telling someone what you'll do. That works when you tell someone what action you plan to take. It backfires when you share what result you'll get, because your brain visualizes some of the result, and experiences the reward prematurely.
The security camera guy of the shop is surveillance. Being in a public space, knowing who is looking at you (let alone, he is being seen by others as looking at you), is not the same thing.
Maybe precommitment is not what i had in mind but but you do mention explicitly "implementation intentions" as "what to do and how you will do it" which may not be an optimal thing to do.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/200...
In the past for some things that are hard to do I asked a friend to come over to my place and/or having them on the phone for some time.
So I'd not feel that as "video surveillance" but rather human company. (For video surveillance alone you wouldn't need a partner, it'd expect it is not to difficult to train an AI to detect whether you're working or slacking locally from video capture and desktop screenshots plus use a virtual call center of "central scrutinizers" to oversee the AI).
(Update: OH SHIT THAT ALREADY EXISITS: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119734-ai-tracks-your-...)
I'm also critical of their "behavioral triggers". For example, "Pre-commitment" has more often be found to have the reverse effect: when you tell people what you will do, you end up not doing it. And social pressure is hit or miss. (Their generic list of neurotransmitters is also suspect). I see a future in this but with a different structure: paid behavioral coaches that teach you how to be more disciplined. That would be a valuable service, because right now remote work is not for everyone for the reason that they 're not disciplined. That's something malleable