Older adults' privacy considerations for vision based recognition methods of eldercare applications

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Privacy Engineering

Background:

• Technology-based monitoring systems are increasingly used in eldercare.
• Video systems raise significant privacy concerns among older adults.
• Exploring user-centered design for privacy in assistive technologies is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate older adults' privacy considerations regarding video-based eldercare monitoring.
• To assess the impact of image distortion (shape extraction, silhouette images) on privacy concerns.
• To determine older adults' willingness to adopt anonymized video monitoring solutions.

Main Methods:

• Recruited ten residents from an independent retirement community.
• Conducted video-recorded scenarios of daily activities (e.g., visitors, snack preparation).
• Utilized various image processing techniques and conducted in-depth interviews post-demonstration.

Main Results:

• Shape extraction and silhouette images effectively alleviated privacy concerns.
• Participants showed no privacy concerns with silhouette images, prioritizing anonymity.
• Older adults desire control over system operation (on/off) and data access.

Conclusions:

• Anonymizing image processing, such as silhouette extraction, can mitigate privacy issues in eldercare video monitoring.
• User control over system activation and data access is essential for acceptance.
• Future eldercare technologies should prioritize privacy-preserving features and user autonomy.