The Investigation of Adoption of Voice-User Interface (VUI) in Smart Home Systems among Chinese Older Adults

Abstract

Driven by advanced voice interaction technology, the voice-user interface (VUI) has gained popularity in recent years. VUI has been integrated into various devices in the context of the smart home system. In comparison with traditional interaction methods, VUI provides multiple benefits. VUI allows for hands-free and eyes-free interaction. It also enables users to perform multiple tasks while interacting. Moreover, as VUI is highly similar to a natural conversation in daily lives, it is intuitive to learn. The advantages provided by VUI are particularly beneficial to older adults, who suffer from decreases in physical and cognitive abilities, which hinder their interaction with electronic devices through traditional methods. However, the factors that influence older adults’ adoption of VUI remain unknown. This study addresses this research gap by proposing a conceptual model. On the basis of the technology adoption model (TAM) and the senior technology adoption model (STAM), this study considers the characteristic of VUI and the characteristic of older adults through incorporating the construct of trust and aging-related characteristics (i.e., perceived physical conditions, mobile self-efficacy, technology anxiety, self-actualization). A survey was designed and conducted. A total of 420 Chinese older adults participated in this survey, and they were current or potential users of VUI. Through structural equation modeling, data were analyzed. Results showed a good fit with the proposed conceptual model. Path analysis revealed that three factors determine Chinese older adults’ adoption of VUI: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust. Aging-related characteristics also influence older adults’ adoption of VUI, but they are mediated by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust. Specifically, mobile self-efficacy is demonstrated to positively influence trust and perceived ease of use but negatively influence perceived usefulness. Self-actualization exhibits positive influences on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Technology anxiety only exerts influence on perceived ease of use in a marginal way. No significant influences of perceived physical conditions were found. This study extends the TAM and STAM by incorporating additional variables to explain Chinese older adults’ adoption of VUI. These results also provide valuable implications for developing suitable VUI for older adults as well as planning actionable communication strategies for promoting VUI among Chinese older adults.

Technological Acceptance of Industry 4.0 by Students from Rural Areas

“…Numerous studies confirm the robustness of the model, emphasizing its broad applicability to a diverse set of technologies and users [30]. It has been used in recent years to study the adoption of new technologies, such as wearables [55], Google Glass [56], augmented reality [57], Smart Home systems [58], IoT-based systems [24], and digital transformation strategies [59].…”

Patient Acceptability of Home Monitoring for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration Reactivation: A Qualitative Study

“…While test complexity and technical or reliability problems are common barriers to technology acceptance [ 45 , 46 , 47 ], these issues were relatively infrequent in the present study. Persistence and ‘problem solving’, as well as external support were needed to overcome them in the relatively few occasions when they did occur.…”

Talk like me: Exploring the feedback speech rate regulation strategy of the voice user interface for elderly people

“…On the other hand, voice interaction devices are inanimate objects, and users have lower intimacy and trust during initial use. They also interact more cautiously, which is not conducive to conveying information effectively ( Dautenhahn, 2004 ; Höflich and El Bayed, 2015 ; Song et al, 2022 ). Thus, it is reasonable and essential to apply speech convergence strategies to improve the dialog relationship between voice interaction devices and users.…”

“… Ziman and Walsh (2018) studied the factors affecting seniors’ perceptions of VUI, and indicated that familiarity, usability, habit, aversion to typing, and efficiency of voice input are the most critical factors that influenced the seniors’ perceptions and acceptance of VUI. Research ( Pradhan et al, 2020 ; Song et al, 2022 ) focused on the adoption and usage of VUI by elderly people with low technology use found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust are decisive factors that determined elderly people adapt VUI or not and influenced their attitudes to VUI. After studied the patterns of tactics that people employ to overcome the problems when interacting with VUI, Myers ( Myers et al, 2018 ) indicated that feedback strategy could be a worthy point to improve VUI’s user experience.…”