Smart Home for the Elderly - A Survey of Desires, Needs, and Problems

• Published in: Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technology in Everyday Living Vol. 13331; pp. 107 - 121
• Main Authors: Schak, Monika, Blum, Rainer, Bomsdorf, Birgit
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2022; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Accommodations for aging-in-place; Daily living activity support; Generational differences in IT use; Human aspects of IT for the aged population; Smart home and IoT
• ISBN: 3031056531; 9783031056536
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-05654-3_7

We present the results of a survey with 87 senior citizens aged 62 to 90 years to gain insight into their use of technological devices such as smartphones and smart home devices, into common issues they encounter when using such devices, and into their preferences when interacting with a smart home system, e.g., the form of control such as touch control, voice control, gesture control or activity control. We found that a big part of the target group uses smartphones daily and regularly uses other touch devices such as tablets and navigation systems. We also detected that the use of smart home devices is less common. Although most of the respondents have heard about smart homes, only a very small part has devices in their homes. The results show that senior citizens are open to receiving support from technical systems if help from other people can not be sufficiently provided. They show great interest but also require help in how to select, set up and use devices. The survey showed that the elderly are worried about their privacy, initial and running costs and the actual benefits provided by smart home systems. We noticed that respondents with limitations in vision, hearing, or mobility seem to be more open about technical support in general and more intuitive forms of interaction in particular.