New technology and smart homes have the potential to improve quality of life, safety, and care for older people. However, we do not yet know how older people's perceptions of these technologies may vary, in particular how views based on experience of actual use may differ from those related to anticipated use. We also do not know how older people living independently might view technology that may be of future rather than current value to them. This paper explores older people's views of smart home monitoring technology and compares these between people with direct experience and those without. Four focus groups were conducted with six older people recruited from the community with no smart home experience and seven drawn from a large-scale Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration that is developing a sensor platform for health and lifestyle at home. For the seven participants, the sensor platform was installed and operated in their homes for eight to twelve months before the current study.

The study found that participants in each group had some similar and some different understandings of smart home technologies. Among participants who had already tried the smart home monitoring technology, acceptance increased over time and with use. They expressed fewer concerns than non smart homes participants regarding privacy, trust, usability, and more concerns about utility. Non smart home participants focused on the extent to which this technology might increase household's vulnerability and they considered the technology somewhat intrusive and noticeable. It appeared that the more positive views of participants who had direct experience of smart homes related to the degree of trust between them and the researchers who installed and maintained the smart home system. Both groups of participants shared views about the technical feasibility, affordability, impact on relationships, and about the engagement and competencies of those who would view the monitoring data. They suggested that the technology would be more acceptable if it was possible to customize functionality and features. These findings have implications for development of smart home technologies so that they are appropriate and acceptable to older people who are living independently.

新技术和智能家居具有改善老年人生活，安全和护理质量的潜力。但是，我们还不知道老年人对这些技术的看法可能会如何变化，特别是基于实际使用经验的观点可能与预期使用的观点有何不同。我们还不知道独立生活的老年人如何看待未来的技术而不是当前的价值。本文探讨了老年人对智能家居监控技术的看法，并在有直接经验的人和没有经验的人之间进行了比较。进行了四个焦点小组讨论，其中有六名从社区招募的没有智能家居经验的老年人，还有七名是从大型跨学科研究合作组织中选拔出来的，该组织正在开发一种用于家庭健康和生活方式的传感器平台。对于七名参与者，在当前研究之前，传感器平台已在其家中安装并运行了八到十二个月。

研究发现，每个小组的参与者对智能家居技术都有一些相似和不同的理解。在已经尝试过智能家居监控技术的参与者中，接受度随着时间和使用的增加而增加。与非智能家居参与者相比，他们对隐私，信任，可用性的担忧更少，而对效用的担忧则更多。非智能家居参与者关注该技术可能在多大程度上增加家庭的脆弱性，他们认为该技术具有一定的侵入性和吸引力。似乎有直接对智能家居经验的参与者的积极看法与他们与安装和维护智能家居系统的研究人员之间的信任程度有关。两组参与者都对技术可行性，可负担性，对关系的影响以及将要查看监视数据的人员的参与和能力有共同的看法。他们建议，如果可以自定义功能和特性，则该技术将更容易被接受。这些发现对智能家居技术的发展具有重要意义，因此它们对于独立生活的老年人是适当的并且可以接受的。