Smart clothing: Perceived benefits vs. perceived fears

Abstract

Smart textile technologies integrate computer functionality into textiles. Since a few years, smart clothing has been coming up in the sport and health sector and is increasingly implemented in everyday objects within private spaces. Especially the use of textiles for medical reasons and their potential use within Ambient Assisted Living-Concepts (AAL) make it necessary to understand users' perspectives on these technologies and the willingness to use them. Today, the understanding in which way individual attitudes and emotional and cognitive abilities, may impact the acceptance of pervasive health care technologies, is restricted. This research is focused on the users' hopes and fears towards smart clothing and examines perceived benefits and barriers. As women have a higher life expectancy and will dominate the group of old people in the future - gender was chosen as one central factor of interest. As the second factor we examined technical experience in order to learn if the acceptance for smart clothing is connected to the degree of users previous experience with technology. Outcomes revealed both factors - gender and technical experience - to be decisive factors for the acceptance of smart clothing. Generally, women and persons with low technical experience show considerable caveats towards the usage of smart clothing technologies what becomes most evident in the perceived barriers and fears connected to the usage of this new technology.