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Understanding the Interest Toward Smart Home Technology: The Role of Utilitaristic Perspective

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Ambient Assisted Living (ForItAAL 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 544))

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Abstract

Every day, innovative devices support healthcare for the escalating needs of the population ageing but the poor adoption hinder their spread older adults. The present study aims to investigate the factors that may influence perceptions and expectations of 306 Italian older adults (M = 74, SD = 7.43) towards smart home and wellbeing technology. A questionnaire was verbally administered in face-to-face sessions by trained interviewers in order to collect data. Overall, the results return a positive picture of participants’ perception of the technology though attitude towards technology is definitely driven by utilitaristic means: usefulness, easiness, safety and privacy are considered important while aesthetics, size and weight are not. Around half of our respondents have a positive interest in technology and almost all of them believe that technology may eventually improve their life. According to these findings, the paper discusses some challenges for the whole research sector that appears still fragmentary and lacking of a strong body of evidence. Moreover, the promotion of trust and empowerment actions through instructional programs is highlighted.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry for University and Research through the project “Active Ageing@home”, within the National Technological Cluster (CTN01_00128_297061, TAV—Tecnologie per gli Ambienti di Vita) venture in the PON-2013-FESR framework.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS INRCA, National Institute of Health and Science on Aging, Via S.Margherita 5, Ancona, Italy

    Vera Stara, Mirko Di Rosa & Lorena Rossi

  2. ITC-irst, Via Sommarive 18, Povo, Trento, Italy

    Massimo Zancanaro

  3. University of Salento, Via Stampacchia 45, Lecce, Italy

    Stefania Pinnelli

Authors
  1. Vera Stara
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  2. Massimo Zancanaro
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  3. Mirko Di Rosa
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  4. Lorena Rossi
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  5. Stefania Pinnelli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vera Stara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CNR-IMM, Lecce, Italy

    Alessandro Leone

  2. CNR-IMM, Lecce, Italy

    Andrea Caroppo

  3. CNR-IMM, Lecce, Italy

    Gabriele Rescio

  4. CNR-IMM, Lecce, Italy

    Giovanni Diraco

  5. CNR-IMM, Lecce, Italy

    Pietro Siciliano

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Stara, V., Zancanaro, M., Di Rosa, M., Rossi, L., Pinnelli, S. (2019). Understanding the Interest Toward Smart Home Technology: The Role of Utilitaristic Perspective. In: Leone, A., Caroppo, A., Rescio, G., Diraco, G., Siciliano, P. (eds) Ambient Assisted Living. ForItAAL 2018. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 544. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05921-7_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05921-7_32

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05920-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05921-7

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