Users’ perceptions and attitudes towards smart home technologies

Abstract

The concept of smart home is a promising and efficient way of maintaining good health, providing comfort and safety thus helps in enhancing the quality of life. Acceptability of smart homes relies on the users’ perceptions towards its benefits and their concerns related to monitoring and data sharing. Within this study, an online survey with 234 participants has been conducted to understand the attitudes and perceptions of future smart home users, followed by detailed analysis of their responses. In general, the users agree that the smart home technology would improve the quality of life to a greater extent and enhance the safety and security of residents. On the contrary, they raise several concerns such as the increased dependence on technology and the monitoring of private activities, which may be seen as perceived drawbacks. The obtained results show that the older adults (ages from 36 to 70 years) are more open to monitoring and sharing data especially if it useful for their doctors and caregivers while the young adults (ages up to 35 years) are somewhat reluctant to share information.