Older Adults and Brain-Computer Interface: An Exploratory Study
This work addresses the problem of designing BCI interaction paradigms for older adults in smart home settings, but it is incremental as it focuses on exploratory insights rather than technological advancements.
This exploratory study investigated the potential of non-invasive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) for Smart Home Technology targeted at older adults through two workshops, gathering insights on advantages, drawbacks, and key features, but did not report concrete numerical results.
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.