Hi I’m an engineer from London,
I sit at a desk all day long and solve problems with programs.
When I’m “in the zone” I’m good at my job, when “staring out the window” not so much 
I would like to find an automated way to track attention so I may “snap myself out of it” when my mind wanders but without wearing anything obvious.
One idea I had was tracking heart rate variability with a chest strap and something on my android phone or Windows desktop.
Has anyone tried anything like this
Sounds like a good experiment.
Have you considered a ‘hands-free’ tech? Similar to how Cardiio(http://www.cardiio.com/) measures heart rate? Simply using a camera.
That may give you flexibility to try other tracking technologies (eye tracking?)
What do you think? Obviously only works if you work at a computer
I love the idea of using a camera, I remember when that research came out thinking “open-source hackers are going to jump all over this” then a few months later not much “big” seems to of happened with it (except Microsoft building it into their latest console)
What I could imagine is from a camera perched on top of my screen a red border flashes (or something more subtle) when my mind wanders, link that then into a game-engine/scoreboard and improving my concentration becomes fun!
I’m wondering if heart rate is the best way to achieve this? Maybe you could look activity on your computer to start with? i.e, if you start browsing in Chrome for > 10 mins as oppose to having a text editor open you’re alerted. RescueTime could be a good place to start for this.
Consumer EEG devices can measure focus: I’ve used the NeuroSky MindWave, and am looking forward to testing the Muse and the Melon.
Of course these devices won’t know if you’re focusing on your work, or on the squirrel outside your window…
I’ve looked at those but the cost seemed quite high as I don’t work from home might cause stares from my co-workers!
This is an example of someone I saw using HRV in their iphone app but unfortunately just for monitoring meditative state