Teknik och samhälle
Datavetenskap
Examensarbete
15 högskolepoäng, grundnivåSmart Homes: perceived benefits and risks by Swedish consumers
Smarta Hem: fördelar och risker enligt svenska konsumenter
Khaled Mandour
Salma Raja
Examen: Kandidatexamen 180 hp Handledare: Nancy Russo Huvudområde: Datavetenskap
Program: Datavetenskap- och applikationsutveckling Datum för slutseminarium: 2019-01-04
Abstract
With the rapid development of Internet technology, the field of home automation is expanding. The interest and demand for smart home technologies has increased significantly in Sweden. Smart home technology provides households with intelligent living environments for daily convenience. The purpose of this study is to extract the information from Swedish consumers about their perceived benefits and risks of smart homes. To be able to generate this data we have executed a survey and this paper highlights the perceived benefits and risks of smart homes from multiple perspectives
of
Swedish consumers. The results of the study can be helpful in future for Swedish law making agencies, policymakers and smart home device manufacturers to mitigate the security issues and risks mentioned by Swedish consumers.Keywords: Smart Home, Smart Home Devices, Internet of Things, Connected Homes, Smart Home Services, Benefits and Risks.
Sammanfattning
Med den snabba utvecklingen av Internetteknologi växer området för hemautomatisering alltmer. Intresset och efterfrågan för teknik inom smarta hem har ökat avsevärt i Sverige. Teknik inom smarta hem förser hushåll med intelligenta levnadsmiljöer för daglig bekvämlighet. Syftet med denna studie är att framställa information från svenska konsumenter om deras uppfattade fördelar och risker kring smarta hem. För att kunna generera denna data har vi genomfört en enkätundersökning och detta dokumentet lyfter fram de upplevda fördelarna och riskerna med smarta hem från flera perspektiv av svenska konsumenter runt om hela Sverige. Resultaten av studien kan vara till hjälp för framtida svenska lagstiftande organ, beslutsfattare och tillverkare av smarta hem för att mildra de säkerhetsfrågor och risker som svenska konsumenter lyfter fram.
Nyckelord: Smart Home, Smart Home Devices, Internet of Things, Connected Homes, Smart Home Services, Benefits and Risks.
Glossary
Home Automation[47] All aspects of adding control to your home and appliances. It can be as simple as adding remote control to a few lights, or creating a more complex system that includes automatic sensors and security systems.
Internet of Things (IoT)[47] Popular term to describe how real-world sensors and appliances will be connected together via the 'cloud' enabling them to communicate and control each other wirelessly. Also known as IoT.
Network[47] Two or more Devices connected together is called a Network. This enables Devices to be controlled and to communicate with each other. For home automation we typically refer to a Wireless Network as a Network.
Protocol[47] A set of communication rules that enable network devices to communicate with each other. INSTEON, Z-Wave, ZigBee and LightwaveRF all have their own communication protocols.
Ubiquitous Computing (ubicomp)[48] Ubiquitous computing is a paradigm in which the processing of information is linked with each activity or object as encountered. It involves connecting electronic devices, including embedding microprocessors to communicate information. Devices that use ubiquitous computing have constant availability and are completely connected.
Table of Content
Content Pages 1.Introduction………... 9 1.1 Background……….. 10 1.1.1 Internet of Things………. 10 1.1.2 History………. 111.2 Application Areas of Smart Home………..12
1.2.1 Elderly/Ageing/Home Care……….12 1.2.2 Energy Efficiency………..13 1.2.3 Comfort/Entertainment………... 13 1.2.4 Safety/Security……….. 13 1.3 Architecture………..14 1.3.1 Centralized Architecture……….14 1.3.2 Distributed Architecture………. 14 1.4 Related Work……….... 14 1.5 Purpose……….18 1.6 Limitations………....19 1.7 Research Questions………... 19 2. Method……….19 2.1 Method description………. 20 2.2 Method discussion………. 20 2.2.1 Chosen method……….20 2.2.2 Alternative methods……….23 3. Results……….24 3.1 Questionnaire statistics………....25
3.2 Feedback from the participants of the survey………....39
4.Analysis………40
4.1 Engaging aspects of smart home technology………....40
4.2 Diverse opinions and feedback……….. 41
4.3 Opinions on benefits and risks of smart home technology……….... 42
4.4 Improvements for smart home technology………..42
4.5 Comparison of results………...44
5. Discussion………..44
5.1 The potential of smart home technology………..44
5.2 Future gains and benefits of smart home technology………. 45
5.3 Challenges ahead and risks of smart home technologies……….. 46
6. Conclusion and further research………. 47
References………..49
1. Introduction
In recent years, the interest of Smart Home(SH) has increased phenomenally. With every passing day technology is developing more and more and smart homes are a big part of that[1]. Today, smart homes supports its users in the daily life on a regular basis with assisted services and remote monitoring systems[2]. Alam et. al[2] explains that smart homes optimize user comfort by using context awareness and predefined constraints supporting the conditions of the home environment[2]. There is a general consensus that the home of the future should be a smart one with the main purpose of making user’s life at home more comfortable in different ways[2].
The definition of what a “smart home” is can be explained in many different aspects. Schiefer[3] gives a definition which can be summarized mainly as “a home that incorporates advanced automation systems to provide the inhabitants with sophisticated monitoring and control over the building’s functions”. Schiefer continues by giving examples that smart homes may control lighting, temperature, multimedia, security, window and door operations, as well as many other functions. A smart home can also be defined as a residence equipped with computing and information technology which anticipates and respond to its users needs[2]. Bugeja[14] also mentions that a typical, simple, and well accepted definition has been developed by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). King[28] builds on what Bugeja mentions, that the DTI’s Smart Home project defined a “smart home” as: “A dwelling [home] incorporating a communication network that connects the key electrical appliances and services, and permits them to be remotely controlled, monitored or accessed”.
In the future almost everything at home can be digital as lots of things are directly or indirectly connected to the internet or to a smartphone[2]. Think of a hairbrush that tells its user how to brush, a shower that heats the water based on who is using the shower or a fridge that shows what is inside at all times, displaying recipes on the fridge door and providing a family calendar[2]. Think about a remote that controls all smart home technology and for example can even call an Uber if a person points the remote towards the front door of the house to call an Uber on the way out, then the possibilities with smart home technologies are endless[2]. The vision of Ubiquitous Computing (ubicomp) smart home environments aims to integrate all individual devices to the smart home and control them all through one interface [32, 33].
The smart home market is growing rapidly with new innovations coming out all the time[2]. The potential of smart homes is great and is poised to become a big part of most people's daily life where all the technologies of the future homes optimize user comfort[2]. Chan et al.[27] brings forward that there has been major growth within the market of smart home devices. Gartner, Inc.[39] forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things would be in use in 2015, which is 30% higher than 2014 and will
meet the expected value of 25 billion by 2020. According to the Zion Market Research[23], the global market of smart homes is expected to reach 53.45 billion USD by 2022 and industry analysis shows compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.5% between 2017 and 2022.
This makes the topic interesting for further research as there are still more important issues to put forward in a world where information technology doesn´t stop expanding. Through investigating the underlying issues with smart homes new research questions were found and needed to be answered. This study intends to investigate how Swedish consumers perceive the benefits and risks of smart home technology. This paper will focus on researching specifically what kind of benefits and risks are perceived of SH by Swedish consumers, because there has been no research made regarding this topic considering Swedish consumers only. Many users of smart homes today need to know what they are getting themselves into when buying a smart home system.
This topic was chosen because of our great interest in IoT, Internet of Things, where smart home technology then caught our attention as computer science students during our studies. Smart home technology will affect our society even more in the future as it already has huge influence on people's lives which made us interested in digging deeper into this topic. What we want to achieve is a better understanding of how Swedish people perceive benefits and risks of smart homes and hopefully provide some new and innovative answers to our raised questions to the consumers, manufacturers and regulators of these systems.
1.1 Background
This chapter will describe background information and main concepts that are used in this research work such as connected home, Internet of Things and smart homes.
1.1.1 Internet of Things
Internet of Things was first defined by Kevin Ashton[29] in 1999. Kevin Ashton is sometimes referred to as the inventor of Internet of Things since he first used the term in 1999 to describe a system where the Internet is connected to the physical world via ubiquitous sensors. Ashton explains that today's computers and, therefore, the Internet are almost wholly dependent on human beings for information as humans are physical, and so is the environment.
Jhonattan et al.[24] also presents Internet of Things (IoT) as a technology which is growing every day since it has allowed the interconnection of different devices existent in smart environments, for example home environment, and because it has allowed improving or supporting different services such as physical security, energy consumption management, entertainment among other devices. Jhonattan et al.[24] discusses how smart home environment, also known as Smart Home Automation Systems (known as SHAS), has completely provided the solutions for
domestic needs of families around the world.
Seralathan et al.[15] mentions in their study that smart homes is a domain of IoT, essentially an automated building, composed of a network of devices that provide “electronic, sensor, software, and network connectivity inside a home”.
1.1.2 History
The term “smart home” was first officially used as long ago as 1984 by the American Association of House builders[7], though the first “wired homes” were actually built by hobbyists in the early 1960s. According to Harper[7] this development is key to what is meant by smart homes[7]. Going forward in time, Barlow et al.[35] discusses that in 1980s, when manufacturers of consumer electronics and electrical equipment were developing digital systems and components suitable for use in domestic buildings, important technological developments have included the replacement of electromechanical switching with digital switching, and of traditional twisted pair and coaxial cables switching with optical fibres. Other enabling developments highlighted by Barlow et al. are new communication networks, like Internet which allow two-way communication, and new end devices like videophones. By 1984 Aldrich[34] shows how commercial interest in home automation had grown sufficiently for the National Association of Home Builders in the USA to form a special interest group called “Smart House” to be able to acquire necessary technology into the design of new homes, so that it will be part of future homes. Here, some form of remote control was possible which Hui et al.[12] explains by decoding Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals through telephone lines. However, according to Katre et al.[13] the turning point in smart home development occurred when the domestic Internet appeared on personal computers in the mid 1990s.
Despite greater public awareness of the smart home concept, Aldrich[34] also highlights the uncertain extent to which people at the end of the 20th century were ready to welcome such technology into their own homes. Aldrich discusses how in that era, popular media suggested some apprehension, particularly over issues of retaining control over the technology. Furthermore, Aldrich[34] argues and gives example that although this was not a new concern it remained a relevant theme as indicated by the film Dream House (1998) in which a malevolent smart home takes control over its residents. Costante et al.[16] discusses another important landmark, introduced in the last quarter of the 20th century, which was the introduction of information technology in the homes. Costante et al. argues how this created new possibilities for exchanging information sparking the evolution of smart home technology.
In the study of Demiris et al.[8] in 2008 the concept of smart homes refer to an innovative concept that integrates technology within residences in order to maintain and even enhance functional health, security, safety and quality of life of their residents. In 2012 Alam et al.[2] presents smart home as a technology that
intelligently gives its users ultimate control over their home by automating the lighting system, dimming, curtains, electrical appliances, audio and security systems. Alam et al. explains how smart homes basically connect all the devices and appliances in users home so they can communicate with each other and with their users. Alam et al. further mentions that anything in home that uses electricity or battery can be put on the home network and at its user’s command, whether user give that command by voice, remote control or computer, the home reacts. Alam et al. then discusses that smart homes can work adequately with simple systems such as receivers and transmitters. In the study[2] it is explained that receivers detect a certain signal from the transmitters, that issues a command. The study[2] then brings forward recent years, in which the industrial interest in smart home appliance and enhanced automation features of the home has increased significantly.
Smart home technologies improve automation and give ultimate control over home by monitoring of household devices and connect via standard means of communication for its operations[11]. To be able to understand the concept of SH or home automation, Gullstrand et al.[11] explains that it is important to understand “House Infrastructure”, which is a centralized control of a building’s for example heating, lighting, water, ventilation and air conditioning. Gullstrand et al. further discusses the purpose of this kind of system is to improve comfort, reduce energy consumption and operating costs. Also, by automatically turning off utilities improve their life span. Another part is Appliances in smart home, security locks of doors and gates etc. The home automation devices may be connected to a Home Gateway/Hub which may be connected to a Local Area Network. Gullstrand et al. [11] explains that this would allow user to control and program the systems from a personal computer, tablet and smartphone, and also it may allow remote access from the Internet.
1.2 Application Areas of Smart Home
1.2.1 Elderly/Ageing/Home Care
Smart Homes are the result of the growing aging population, rising demand for home health care, aided living and energy consumption. Kientz et.al[9] gives example that there are specially adapted systems to provide the specific help elderly and disabled people need that otherwise would require a caretaker or institutional care [9][10]. Chan et al.[27] describes the concept of smart home as a promising and economical manner of maintaining healthiness, providing comfort and safety and helping in enhancing the standard of life. Chan et al. explains that smart homes allow greater independence, maintaining good health and preventing social isolation for elderly people and for mobility-impaired people. Smart home application is not only valid for elderly people but for people living in rural and remote communities with inadequate health services available and for people who suffer from chronic disease and who need continuous monitoring (diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, COPD, etc). The Swedish Handicap Institute[30]
has developed a two-room SmartBo project (meaning smart living) for individuals with mild to severe disabilities. The project focuses on ICT and assistive devices and solutions which contains basic systems enabling the user to supervise and manage functions which are available in a home (windows, doors, locks, water outlets, electric power, cooker, and bed).
1.2.2 Energy Efficiency
In SH reduction of energy consumption became a very important topic in the context of technological development of modern society which highly impacts on future development of mankind. Badica et al.[36] says in his study that as sources to produce energy are becoming inadequate but technological progression requires the use of more energy. Smart homes gives better solutions that can control energy savings for example smart meters can be considered as one of the best solutions to save money and energy consumption. Power grid is evolving into new smarter network which is known as “Smart Grid”[36]. In SH switching off or setting the low power mode to the connected appliances which are not currently in use can save a lot of energy.
1.2.3 Comfort/Entertainment
A category which has substantial impact on smart home users is comfort and entertainment. Quintessential examples these days are controlling home ambiance by voice command(Google Home or Alexa), adjusting curtains and lights, playing background music or ordering pizza. This enhances the fact about automation of routine activities at home.
1.2.4 Safety/Security
Anwar et al.[4] explains that due to many security breaches, trust issues have arisen among users. New threats and vulnerabilities occurring regularly makes the topic more challenging and interesting. Anwar et al.[4] focuses on the critical review about the topic of security threats which is required due to recent security breaches in different smart home setups. According to Ali et al.[5] and Bastos et al.[6], there is widespread concern that components constituting the smart home systems are likely to be exposed highly to a variety of threats from inside or outside homes because most of them have internet connectivity, unlike the existing home network environment. According to the study of Bastos et al.[6], with technology and concepts within smart homes advancing more and more with each passing day, new sets of issues arise such as trust issues, privacy in devices, reliability, privacy on networks and cost related issues.
1.3 Architecture
Badica et al.[36] mentions that smart home architecture can be defined by the computational capabilities of their components. These components interact with each other and exchange data about the state of the home. Architecture of Smart home can be defined by its underlying Control System:
Centralized Architecture Distributed Architecture
1.3.1 Centralized Architecture
A traditional smart home usually has centralized architecture because it is easy to manage. Wu et al.[37] discusses that in centralized architecture, home appliances are connected to the home’s local network and controlled by the home gateway(hub) and hub collects data from other devices and acts as a central point of connectivity, which is the platform for service providers to provide services to residents. Badica et al.[36] explains that Gateway works as an interface for smart homes with the outside world as it directs all the data to and from the internet. All the smart devices at home communicate with Gateway via local network. Smart home users can control all the devices by designated Android or iOS applications.
1.3.2 Distributed Architecture
In distributed architecture all smart devices communicate with each other and smart devices embed software components into the nodes of the home network. Badica et al.[36] explains that smart home architecture can also be conceptually distributed, while still physically centralized into the Home Gateway. Bugeja[14] also mentioned that in reality, it is also possible to have hybrid or decentralized architectures combining the characteristics of both. Badica et al.[36] further explains that distributed architectures can use a service-oriented approach as well.
1.4 Related Work
This chapter will include related work which are reviewed. The papers were found by searching keywords such as “smart home”, “connected home”, “surveys on smart homes”, “benefits of smart homes”, “risks of smart homes”, “security issues” ,“home automation system”, “privacy” and “IoT” on IEEE, ACM, SpringerLink and Google Scholar. These keywords were combined using the terms “OR” and “AND” followed by “Smart Home” or “SH”.
Several surveys have been made to analyze the benefits and risks of smart homes. Smart homes are used for a diverse range of applications including activity recognition, health assessment and assistance, environmental quality monitoring, resource efficiency and home automation. In a British national survey, Wilson et
al.[17] analyze data from prospective smart home users. Their analysis presents that smart home is dominantly seen through an energy management lens. In addition to energy management the results in their study[17] also highlight that the purpose of smart home technology is making life at home more convenient (83% agree or strongly agree), providing security (71%) and enhancing entertainment and communication (60%) which also are clearly perceived purposes. Prospective users of SH strongly perceive potential risks in the increasing dependence on systems of technology provision (77% agree or strongly agree) and electricity networks (63%)[17].
Another online survey[31] conducted in multiple continents mentions that the prospective users of smart home technology perceive the benefits as comfort, safety and improved quality of life but show concerns over the increased dependence on technology and the monitoring of private activities, which may be seen as perceived drawbacks.
There has been a plethora of research work addressing various aspects of SH such as security issues, elderly care, energy efficiency and entertainment. However, in another study [18] participants expressed a variety of concerns including usability, reliability, accessibility and absence of public policy at the state or federal level promoting smart home technology adoption for aging population[18]. Technologies such as assistive robots, mobile and wearable sensors have gained a lot of attention, but there are still many challenges that need to be addressed [25]. Along with the privacy protection, the actual needs and concerns of future smart home inhabitants need to be considered. Various studies have been conducted with older adults to know their requirements, concerns and perceptions for smart homes [19]. In another study, Singh et al.[31] investigated user’s perception and attitude towards smart home technologies and this study shows that the older adults (ages from 36 to 70 years) are more open to monitoring and sharing data especially if it is useful for their doctors and caregivers while the young adults (ages up to 35 years) are somewhat reluctant to share information. The results of some other surveys showed the interest of the participants in the assistive technologies and the necessity of smart home technology for independent living, safety and better quality of life [20, 21].
In the study conducted by Dalsaniya et al.[40] they propose a mobility-assistive device for disabled people in order for people with disabilities to gain some form of physical independence. Dalsaniya et al. presents the proposed system with three main functions which are wheelchair navigation using multiple input, obstacle detection using IR sensors and home automation for disabled persons. The study[40] explains the systems different navigations through voice command and moving head or hand in four fixed positions which is captured using a accelerometer sensor built in an Android phone. Dalsaniya et al. further explain that disabled persons using these navigations can minimize the risks of collisions and injuries and can maintain some safer distance from objects. The purpose of this study[40] is to give disabled persons more relaxation through automating homes for them. Dalsaniya et al. highlights that the system can be available at a
very low cost so that more numbers of disabled persons can gain the benefits.
Patrono et al.[41] also proposes another innovative device which monitors elderly behavior by detecting the home appliances usage. In this proposal, the system is based on an unobtrusive smart meter that periodically measures the global power consumption in the house, associated with some smart plugs for continuously monitoring specific electrical devices. Patrono et al. argue that the system, although simple and at low cost, is able to combine data provided by a designed power meter with those of smart meter plugs and by means of implemented algorithms in order to detect unusual elder behavior, reliably and accurately. In this study[41 ] it is highlighted that by monitoring energy consumed by the elderly living alone in their home, it is possible to verify if their behavior is habitual, so giving an indication that there is no cause for alarm or, on the contrary, unusual behavior depending on consumed energy. In this last case Patrono et al. argues that this uncommon behavior can be an alarm which the designed system sends in order to solicit a more in-depth control of elder state. Patrono et al. adds that by using smart meter plugs, the monitoring system is able to detect the activation/deactivation of a particular appliance, so giving more accurate information about the elder activity within the home environment.
Another study conducted by Kim et al. [42] build on what Patrono et al. brought up in their study, although taking a different direction compared to Patrono et al. through presenting a system monitoring and detecting various grades of depression amongst elderly with chronic illnesses. In this study[42] Kim et al. propose a simple unobtrusive sensing system using passive infrared motion sensors(PIR) to monitor the activities of daily living of elderly, who are living alone. Kim et al. claim that the sensing system is non-intrusive and cost-effective, with the potential of use for long-term depression monitoring and detecting early symptoms of mental related disorders. In this study it is explained that depression amongst elderly is detected through a system that uses PIR sensors to monitor and capture the elderly’s Activities of Daily Living(ADLs). As the system uses neither audio-or-video-based sensors, nor contact-based sensors (such as wearables), it is as previously mentioned non-intrusive, cost-effective and avoids intrusion of privacy. According to this study[42] the system enables caregivers to provide timely interventions to elderly, who are at risk of depression. Kim et al. highlights how important it is to take care of our elderly as the amount of elderly people living alone increase all the time, therefore making it necessary to monitor them through sensor-based solutions.
Continuing on the path of sensor-based solutions, Streiff et al.[43] brings up an interesting topic regarding the security risks surrounding “smart toys”. In this study, Streiff et al. explore the physical safety of a child in addition to their digital safety where digital safety concerns include what is being recorded and who is monitoring them. Streiff et al. presents smart toy bears designed to play with children of the ages 3-8 and entertain them with various activities. Here, Streiff et al. argues that this has expanded digital exposure into children's spaces as these
toys contain a variety of communication technologies that users are ill-prepared to understand, countless numbers of sensors collecting private data, including video, and often rely on inadequate security tools and methodology. This intersection of poor security, invasive sensor data, and proximity to children may put children at risks both online and in-person. The researchers of this study[43] identify these security flaws of a smart home product which give entertainment to its user but comes with risks due to the target markets age and vulnerabilities. From this, Streiff et al. highlights the importance of how the risks of a smart product must be fully understood and mitigated both at a manufacturing point as well as a use point in order to live up to the consumers demands. Also worth adding is that Streiff et al. discusses how mitigation education is presented as a critical instrument for self-protection of parents and children in a smart home environment.
Related work in the topic of smart home technology have also researched about technologies made for the comfort of users. In the study conducted by Zhao et al.[44] they present a novel system designed to promote healthy living at home. Zhao et al. present a system that integrates a Microsoft Kinect and wearable devices such as smartwatches and fitness bands to enable selective tracking of user activities in the home environment. The objective of the system in this study[44] is to continuously monitor each user and detect bad postures that could increase the risk of back injuries, and prolonged sedentary bouts that are not contributing for a healthy lifestyle. Zhao et al. explains that the wearable device to be worn by each user also delivers real time feedback to the user on detection of bad postures or inactivities. Furthermore, data of the activities are logged for each individual at a home server and can be assessed via mobile devices or regular Web browsers[44].
In another study conducted by Jin et al.[45] they take the same direction as the study of Zhao et al. where they present a home healthcare system. Jin et al. propose a fingerprint-based remote user authentication scheme that allows home healthcare system users to execute identity authentication by using a smartphone alone. Jin et al. explain that home healthcare systems is one of the most promising technologies from which more and more people begin to benefit. Jin et al. further explain the home healthcare system as different from the traditional paper based information record, where almost all of the patients information nowadays is stored and transferred via digital systems merely by accessing the system. In the proposed system of Jin et al. they argue that home healthcare users can obtain their information and receive remote treatment. Jin et al. further argue that the traditional method is a quick and easy access to digital system which results in information security risks and in turn has received great attention from many researchers.
Regarding the application area of energy consumption in smart homes, there is related work conducted by Errapotu et al.[46] presenting energy consumption as an energy optimized environment that can efficiently regulate the use of various Internet of Things devices. Errapotu et al. discusses that real time electricity
pricing models along with smart homes provide users with an opportunity to reduce their electricity expenditure by responding to the pricing that varies with different times of the day, resulting in reducing the expenditure at both customers and utility providers end. Errapotu et al. argue that responding to such prices and effectively scheduling the appliances under complex dynamics is a challenging optimization problem to be solved by the provider or by third party services. In the study[46] it is explained that communication in an Smart Home IoT environment is extremely sensitive and private, where reporting of such usage information to the provider to solve the optimization has a potential risk which is that the provider or third party services may track consumers energy consumption profile and in turn compromises the consumers privacy. The purpose of this study[46] is to address these issues in order to protect the consumers privacy as the energy demand is exponentially increasing due to the technological advances worldwide.
In the work of Errapotu et al. some suggestions is made for future households about the need to be significantly smarter and more energy-aware. Errapotu et al. investigates smart homes energy consumption and predicts that future smart homes are expected to dynamically adjust their energy profile according to dynamic prices along with the use of renewable energy sources at home. According to this study[46], this may then lead to the reduction of energy consumption in future smart homes, while providing their owners with the opportunity for remote device monitoring and low cost benefits. Furthermore, Errapotu et al. argue that the data collected from smart homes can then be integrated with external data, allowing the smart home system to make better decisions or provide optimized services.
As noticed, the related works brings up many benefits and risks in smart homes depending on the different environments in which the technology is implemented. Smart homes are more beneficial for some and others not as much. Many of the above related works highlights the low-cost of implementing smart home technology and others highlights the problems with the security and privacy of its consumers. To conclude, every consumer have different needs when using smart home technology as the technology is used for different purposes and in different ways. As previously mentioned, this makes the topic interesting for further research from a Swedish consumers perspective as there is no previous work of this kind done in Sweden. Therefore, the related works gave a overview covering the benefits and risks of smart home technology and also a little insight about how the future smart home technologies might shape our future households.
1.5 Purpose
The purpose of this study is to discover what perceptions Swedish consumers have regarding benefits and risks of smart homes. This work will help us to understand the average Swedish persons perceptions about smart home technologies. Survey was the chosen method to gather all data by asking some open-ended questions, so Swedish consumers can give us their feedback about each question and also about the survey itself, which will be very helpful and useful for future research work. The
findings in the study can later on be used as a guideline by policy makers and law makers since this data represents how Swedish consumers perceive benefits and risks of smart home technology and results can eventually have huge impact for future policy makers.
There have been some smart home related research conducted in Sweden. As mentioned earlier, the Swedish Handicap Institute[30] has developed a two-room SmartBo project (meaning smart living) for individuals with mild to severe disabilities. The project focuses on ICT and assistive devices and solutions. This project was however only focused on assisted living and not on benefits and risk of smart home technology altogether. A survey made by Bugeja[14] focuses mainly on how to categorize collected data from smart home devices especially in connection to privacy management and as a first step for quantifying privacy risks. Bugeja’s work mainly focuses on security and privacy issues, where we are looking to collect data which gives overall information about perceived benefits and risks of SH. Another study made by Musalam et al.[38] focuses on security and privacy issues of Smart Meters. According to our knowledge, no survey about how Swedish people perceive benefits and risks of SH have ever been done before. Moreover this research work can play a pivotal role for future policy and law makers.
1.6 Limitations
This research work is primarily aimed at Swedish smart home consumers and how they perceive benefits and risks of smart homes. This study basically is aimed to all Swedish consumers who live in any city or region of Sweden and have access to internet. This document aims to get qualitative data from Swedish people. The online survey can reach to people who do not live in Sweden; to prevent this possibility we made sure that we targeted Swedish online groups on social media and we restricted our survey to only Swedish consumers through the survey invitation.
1.7 Research Questions
This study aims at answering the following questions:
RQ. How do Swedish consumers perceive smart home technologies? (a) How do they perceive benefits of smart home technologies? (b) How do they perceive risks of smart home technologies?
2. Method
In the upcoming section, the method that has been chosen to conduct the study is explained and why it was used to perform the study. Within the current study, an online survey with a detailed questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire
focuses on Swedish consumers experiences with smart home technology to see its effect on the daily activities in and around the households and to understand Swedish consumers views regarding smart homes benefits and risks.
The purpose of this study is to understand how Swedish consumers perceive the benefits and risk of smart homes. In order to come to an understanding about this, it was decided that the best way is to conduct a survey study. In that way one would gather enough data to come to a conclusion about how Swedish consumers perceive the benefits and risks of smart homes. Before conducting the survey, a pilot survey was performed including around 30 participants testing the survey using a smaller sample of participants compared to the planned sample size of participants. From this sample of around 30 participants, the feedback was used to improve the quality of the questionnaire before distributing it via social media.
2.1 Method description
During the research a survey was used as a method in order to systematically gather data from Swedish consumers of smart home technology using a questionnaire. This was done to look for patterns in the collected data where the goal was to generalize the results to a larger group than the tested group and see which conclusions could be drawn from the generalizations. This was done through a sample of users found on social media living all over Sweden. Through using surveys, different opinions, viewpoints and trends were investigated. During the research a qualitative approach was used to investigate the topic. There are different ways to generate data using survey as a method, for example interviews, questionnaires, observations and documents where the choice for this study fell on using a questionnaire. In this study, a questionnaire with predefined questions has been used to gather data regarding Swedish consumers perceptions of the benefits and risks of smart homes.
2.2 Method discussion
2.2.1 Chosen method
The method used in this research has a qualitative approach, as previously mentioned, through collecting quantitative responses. To be able to answer the research questions and to evaluate the perceived benefits and risks of smart home technologies, the choice of survey was assessed as suitable for this research. The method was suitable as it is broad and representative and we wanted to collect data that represented all of Sweden.
A survey questionnaire was developed to measure Swedish consumers perceptions of the benefits and risks of smart homes. The survey was constructed in three parts. The first part contained socio-demographic questions regarding name, age, gender and demographic location of the participants. The second part contained questions regarding the participants perceptions about smart home awareness,
benefits and risks of smart homes and questions regarding the security of smart homes. The third part contained open-ended questions where the participants freely could write in-depth comments and thoughts about the topic and the survey in general. After each question there was an open-end section implemented as “Other...” where the participants could write their own opinions regarding a question or write an answer of their own. Furthermore, the inspiration behind the questions is based on the work of Wilson et al.[17]. Below, all questions with their respective source and motivation is presented in a table:
Question Source Motivation Do you know what a
”smart home” is? Can you give your own definition of “smart home”?
(Wilson et al. 2017) To give the participants the chance to give their own version of what “smart home” means. From what source did
you get acquainted with smart homes?
(Wilson et al. 2017) This question was asked to get an overview about the most popular source used by the participants to learn about smart homes.
From the statements below, which ones do you think fit best to explain the purpose of smart homes?
(Wilson et al. 2017) This question was asked because not everyone have the same opinions regarding the purposes for using technology. What potential benefits
do you see with smart home technologies?
(Wilson et al. 2017) Was very necessary to ask as this question is a big part of the research questions.
For which of the following activities, are smart homes most relevant according to your opinion?
(Wilson et al. 2017) We wanted to gather information about how the participants make use of their devices to see what is most popular.
For what reasons do you think smart homes were manufactured?
(Wilson et al. 2017) Here we wanted to understand for what reasons the participants believe smart home technology was created when the developers first brought forward the idea during the beginning of the 20th century.
How is an implemented smart home managed if you own one? (Can be skipped if you do not have a system implemented at home)
(Wilson et al. 2017) In this question we wanted to see how the participants use their implemented systems in their household, to point out similarities and differences between consumers of smart home technology. What is important to consider in order to build confidence amongst consumers of smart home technologies?
(Wilson et al. 2017) For this question we wanted to learn about what the participants see as important factors before purchasing their smart home products. What do you think could
be potential risks of implementing smart homes?
(Wilson et al. 2017) As the question about the benefits of smart homes, this question was very necessary to ask as this question is a big part of the research questions.
Table 1. Sources and motivations behind survey questions
All the survey questions were developed, tested and refined for clarity and comprehensibility before implementation. The definition of smart home technology was provided to the participants to help give a general understanding what the survey is about. The survey was implemented and shared on social media. Worth noticing is that sharing the survey on social media was a limiting aspect of the survey as there were few other options to gather the necessary data needed to conduct the survey.
Regarding all genders and ages taking part in this survey, no form of discrimination was made when developing the survey. The survey was developed in a way where
no focus was put into the amount of knowledge each participant has about smart homes. The goal was to make the participants answer the questionnaire freely in order to not force responses and gather a wide variety of data to analyze.
It was deemed necessary to gather at least 100 responses in order to perform the study. It was necessary to have a high response rate to be able to analyze the results properly and deem the survey as a success and well conducted. Survey responses were collected online from 15 September 2018 to 12 October 2018 where more than 300 responses were collected. The average time to complete the survey was 5 minutes, taking into account the open-end questions. It should be acknowledged that not everyone answered all questions. However, as the goal was to get an overview about people's perceptions of the benefits and risk of smart homes, it did not affect the outcome of the survey. After the completion of the survey the data was analyzed to find patterns regarding the benefits and risks of smart homes and to indicate what future improvements can be made.
2.2.2 Alternative methods
Alternative methods considered besides the chosen method were firstly experiment. However, using experiments may have been extremely complicated. Experiments require one to be in a controlled environment and this was considered hard to achieve with smart homes as there is no guarantees various consumers would allow experiments to be done in their households with their smart home technology in order to come to conclusions about the benefits and risks of smart homes. This led to a shift of focus from experiments to surveys which was considered to be a better option to use in order to accomplish goals with this research. Secondly, case studies could also have been used but there were two main reasons why case studies were excluded. Firstly, case studies focuses more on depth rather than width and smart homes is a topic mostly seen as a extremely wide topic. Secondly, it is very hard to find multiple companies or families wanting to share cases related to this topic, therefore case studies were excluded as a method to use. Some Swedish companies manufacturing smart systems for SH were contacted, but it was almost impossible to perform case studies with any contacted company because of time frame and availability. Therefore, case study was also excluded as a method to use.
As survey provides a larger sample and is more likely to be representative of population, other methods were not considered for varying reasons. The study may have been able to use interviews as a method to gather more detailed data about smart homes but some significant factors when using this method led to interviews being excluded as a method to use. Using interviews would not have generated as much data as needed regarding this topic compared to a questionnaire, therefore a questionnaire was used to gather more data rather than a small amount of data using interviews. To add to this, there is the aspects of time and cost which are issues with interviews as it could take a long time to arrange interviews with different participants willing to do an interview. This is because the preparation for
the interview, taking the interview and the interpretation of the responses require much time, which makes the interview method time consuming. Regarding the cost, interviews are generally expensive to use as they require personnel.
Using interviews also requires trust and it was deemed that trust is not always mutual during interviews, especially regarding sensitive personal property as products within a smart home environment, which at last made the choice of survey all the more obvious. Interview answers can be ambiguous depending on how specific the answers of the participants is. Instead, as previously mentioned, to give the participants of the survey a chance to comment freely about the topic, sections were added to the survey where the participants could write down their thoughts about the question at hand. Also previously mentioned, an open-end section was added in the ending part of the survey where the participants had the chance to more in-depth write their thoughts on the benefits and risks of smart homes and the survey as a whole. In this way the most important questions would be able to be quantified, as well as giving the participants an opportunity to address other issues that were not included in the predefined questions.
3. Results
In this section, the data gathered through the questionnaire will be presented. The results will be presented through varying charts showing the data collected during the period between 15 September 2018 to 12 October 2018. The results will then be analyzed in a way to give a general picture about how Swedish consumers perceive smart home technology and to clearly see Swedish consumers thoughts about benefits and risks of smart homes. No major distinction was made regarding different age groups when collecting the results more than asking the participants ages in the beginning of the questionnaire in order to see which age group mostly participated in the survey. The questionnaire can be found in its complete form in Appendix A.
After the period of collecting data from the survey was over the total amount was 369 Swedish participants taking part of the survey. These Swedish participants were found on social media groups made up of smart home fanatics and groups consisting of people active in and around the IT-world. The purpose for choosing these kind of groups was to both look for people with knowledge about smart home technology and look for people having varying interest in smart home technology and its products. This was in order to be able to gather varying sets of data to get a general overview about Swedish consumers perceptions about the benefits and risks of smart home technology. The groups on social media were as follows:
Kodapor Kodapor OT
Google Home Sverige
3.1 Questionnaire statistics
The questionnaire consisted of nine multiple choice questions that were used to quantify the results. Every question had multiple choices in order to give participants a wide range of choices to freely choose from. The idea behind this was, when analyzing the results, see what distinctions there is between participants and their thoughts surrounding smart home technology. If a majority of the participants shared the same thoughts regarding a question, it could then be simply to identify if a particular aspect of smart home technology is positive or negative. Below each question and their respective answers will be presented in different charts showing the amount of people who answered each question and what their answer consisted of. Also worth noticing is that not every participant chose to answer every question as no forced answers were wanted in order to collect varying sets of data from each question.
3.1.1 Socio-demographic variables
Before presenting all results, the different age groups and genders will be presented.
Gender?
Figure 1. Gender of the participants
Out of all 369 participants 88,9% were men, 9,8% were women and 1,4% did not identify their gender. Throughout the process of this study no distinction between different genders were made as all participants of the survey were considered equal.
Age?
Figure 2. Age of the participants
Regarding the different age groups, they were split into four categories consisting of the ages 18-29, 30-49, 50-64 and 65 and above. The most common age group participating in this survey was the ages between 30-49 which was 59,3% of the total amount of participants. The second most common age group was the ages between 18-29 which accounted for 30,1% of the total amount of participants. The two least common age groups were persons between the ages of 50-64 accounted for 8,7% while the elderly aged 65 or above accounted for 1,9% of the total amount of participants. As previously mentioned, no distinctions were made regarding the participants age as this data was only collected for statistical reasons to see the most and least common age groups participating in this survey.
3.1.2 Do you know what a “smart home” is? Can you give your own definition of “smart home”?
Figure 3. The participants knowledge and definitions of smart home technologies
The first question asks Swedish consumers about their knowledge of smart home technology. The chart showed different percentages with the added option for the participants of the survey to freely write their own definition of a “smart home”. As the graph shows, more than half(54,5 %) of the participants said that they own some smart home technology products indicating that they have some or a wide range of knowledge about smart home technology. Around one third(30,6%) of the participants said that they have a good understanding about what smart home technology is indicating that a large group of people know their products and what they are all about. The rest of the result was varying as a few had experience from working with smart home products for many years while a small group of people was unsure about what smart home technology is or didn't have any knowledge about the topic at all. It should however be emphasized that the rest of the results apart from the main ones, previously mentioned, isn't necessarily negative. Having certain knowledge or experience within smart home technology can indicate that these persons have a critical eye, due to the varying types of products that they are used to.
3.1.3 From what source did you get acquainted with smart homes?
Figure 4. Sources of smart home acquaintances
In this question about what source the participants were acquainted with smart home technology, it is very clear that the Internet is the main source for most participants. This doesn't come as surprise as the Internet is the main source for most of today's people as more and more own their own computer or any other form of device like mobile phones or IPads. Apart from Internet there is some groups of people who first got acquainted with smart home technology through regular newspapers or visiting their local home and electronics store while another small group of the participants have learned about smart home technology through
companies advertising these products. The next biggest source after the Internet was people informing one another about smart home technology through the so called word of mouth. This may tell the story that some participants did not have any knowledge about smart home technology in the beginning, but found the interest through the likes of relatives, friends or maybe co-workers which, in order lead them to purchase a product within smart home technology.
The rest of the results were made up of freely written answers if any of the first five alternatives did not suit the participants which lead to the chart having many participants answer their true source and not being forced to give an answer based on the given alternatives in this question. From these answers it could then be understood that people from all over Sweden have very varying sources explaining where their knowledge of smart home technology comes from.
3.1.4 From the statements below, which ones do you think fit best to explain the purpose of smart homes?
Figure 5. The participants purposes for using smart home technologies
This multiple-choice question asked the participants to freely choose which ones, or all of them, of the above statements they thought suited them best to explain the purpose of smart home technology. Here, the results indicate that the main common purpose of smart home technology for the participants is to make life at home more comfortable. This generated the highest percentage with around 93% of the participants, 341 out of 367, clearly wanting to be even more comfortable at home. Another commonly chosen alternative was the control of devices, which indicates that many participants wants to remotely control their many devices as their main purpose, when using smart home technology. This may also indicate that the participants want clear structure in their household through having smart home technology at their disposal.
main purpose of smart home technology is to enhance the security and safety of the household. Half the participants also found that entertainment and communication is important when using smart home technology.
The least common choice was the discovery of faulty devices. The least amount of participants chose to include this option in their answers which may indicate that the participants don't use smart home products mainly to look for faults within devices in their household as they have other interests when using smart home technology.
This question was asked to the participants because there is many purposes of using smart home technology. Through creating a multiple-choice question here, participants were not limited to choose just one statement if they found other statements relevant too. Therefore this question was made multiple-choice to create freedom for the participants when answering this question and as, previously mentioned, there is a wide range of purposes regarding the use of smart home technology.
3.1.5 What potential benefits do you see with smart home technologies?
Figure 6. The benefits of using smart home technologies
In this question most participants, 306 out of 368 chose creating comfortability as the main benefit of implementing and using smart home technology in their homes which may mean that they prefer having an automated home where they through smart home devices can control the house remotely and avoid doing tasks physically. The rest of the choices were very divided. Half the participants also highlighted the importance of saving time, saving energy, less effort doing daily chores and enhancing the quality of life. This practically means that the majority of the participants find that automating their daily chores to be of great importance as they can focus on other tasks at the same time. Other interesting results that stood out were about the benefits to be able to improve the security and safety of the
household and also be able to save money and enhance saving time. This question was of vital importance to include as it was deemed necessary to ask the participants what they find as benefits when using smart home technology. Here, the opinions could vary, therefore multiple-choice alternatives was also included in this question to see the most popular benefits and the least popular benefits along with the participants own freely written benefits when using smart home technology. The idea behind this was to create an overview of what the most important benefits are in order to create a general understanding of how Swedish consumers of smart home technology benefits from using their products.
3.1.6 For which of the following activities, are smart homes most relevant according to your opinion?
Figure 7. The most relevant activities for smart home technologies
Around 70% of the participants selected entertainment and socialising as their first priority, which gave an indication of how relevant these activities are in context to smart homes. 48.3% see smart home relevant for cleaning, washing and household work. Other popular alternatives(45.3%) standing out and relevant for smart homes were leisure time and hobbies. Cooking, showering, laundry, work, studies, parenthood and household members were also prominent choices. Here, the opinions could vary, therefore multiple-choice alternatives was also included in this question to see the most popular activity and the least popular activity along with the participants own freely written options when using smart home technology.
3.1.7 For what reasons do you think smart homes were manufactured?
Figure 8. Reasons for manufacturing smart home technologies
In this question participants were asked the question of what reasons they think smart homes are manufactured for and 290 out of 342, which is almost (85%), chose the option of making it possible for household members to take control of their homes, and using smart home technology which may mean that they prefer having an automated home where they through smart home devices can control the house remotely and can feel the ultimate control of their smart homes. The second big reason for manufacturing smart homes was given by 142 participants, accounting for 41.5%, about being able to provide household members with new information. Another interesting option were 28.9% of the participants believing that smart home technology are manufactured to make residents of households move around the house to be more physically active and fit.
3.1.8 How is an implemented smart home managed if you own one? (Can be skipped if you do not have a system implemented at home)
Figure 9. The management of smart home technologies
This question gave most interesting answers asking all participants how an implemented smart home is managed and 150 out of 291 (51.5%) respondents gave the answer that smart home is managed based on multiple devices. Another interesting aspect of this question is that 133 out of 291(45.7%) participants found that smart home technology is managed by multiple users. 124 out of 291(42.6%) provided the answer that smart home technology is managed based on schedule. More choices were 93 out of 291 (32%) participants believing that smart home is managed by voice control command and 76 out of 291(26.1%) participants giving the answer that smart home is managed by automatic answers for detected behaviour by users. 21% believe that smart home is managed by one person and 10.3% believe that only one device can manage a smart home.
3.1.9 What is important to consider in order to build confidence amongst consumers of smart home technologies?
Figure 10. Important aspects for building consumers confidence
In this question the participants were asked what they thought is important to consider for creating trust among consumers of smart home technologies and the most popular choice was that the system should be reliable and easy to use. The highest amount of participants, 91,4%, chose this alternative. 68% of the participants also find that it is important that systems within smart home
