Older Adults and Brain-Computer Interface: An Exploratory Study

TL;DR

This exploratory study investigates older adults' perceptions of non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces in smart home settings, highlighting potential benefits, barriers, and design considerations for future development.

Contribution

It provides new insights into older adults' attitudes towards BCI in smart homes and identifies key factors for designing user-friendly BCI systems for this demographic.

Findings

Older adults see potential benefits in BCI for smart home control.

Identified barriers include usability and trust issues.

Participants suggested features vital for acceptance and use.

Abstract

In this exploratory study, we examine the possibilities of non-invasive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in the context of Smart Home Technology (SHT) targeted at older adults. During two workshops, one stationary, and one online via Zoom, we researched the insights of the end users concerning the potential of the BCI in the SHT setting. We explored its advantages and drawbacks, and the features older adults see as vital as well as the ones that they would benefit from. Apart from evaluating the participants' perception of such devices during the two workshops we also analyzed some key considerations resulting from the insights gathered during the workshops, such as potential barriers, ways to mitigate them, strengths and opportunities connected to BCI. These may be useful for designing BCI interaction paradigms and pinpointing areas of interest to pursue in further studies.