Smart Home Technology for the Elderly: Perceptions of Multidisciplinary Stakeholders Anne-mie Sponselee 1 , Ben Schouten 1 , Don Bouwhuis 2 , and Charles Willems 3 1 Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Hulsterweg 2-6, P.O.Box 141, 5900 AC Venlo, the Netherlands. email: {a.sponselee, ben.schouten}@fontys.nl 2 Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ Eindhoven, the Netherlands. email: d.g.bouwhuis@tue.nl 3 iRv/Vilans, Zandbergsweg 111, 6432 CC Hoensbroek, the Netherlands. email: ch.willems@irv.nl Abstract. The “implementation” and use of smart home technology to lengthen independent living of non-instutionalized elderly have not always been flawless. The purpose of this study is to show that prob- lems with smart home technology can be partially ascribed to differ- ences in perception of the stakeholders involved. The perceptual worlds of caregivers, care receivers, and designers vary due to differences in back- ground and experiences. To decrease the perceptual differences between the stakeholders, we propose an analysis of the expected and experienced effects of smart home technology for each group. For designers the effects will involve effective goals, caregivers are mainly interested in effects on workload and quality of care, while care receivers are influenced by us- ability effects. Making each stakeholder aware of the experienced and expected effects of the other stakeholders may broaden their perspec- tives and may lead to more successful implementations of smart home technology, and technology in general. Keywords: smart home technology, perception, technology acceptance 1 Introduction The most important developments in society for smart home technology are the socialization of care, extramuralization, and ageing [1]. Socialization of care means that people in need of care are no longer concentrated in large-scale insti- tutions, but are returned a full-fledged place within society. Instead of concen- trating on people’s disabilities, one looks at a person’s possibilities. Supporting aging adults to stay in their homes independently for a longer period of time concedes to the wishes and needs of many people in need of care, aiming for an improvement of quality of living and daily life. Extramuralization leads to less intramural residential facilities, remarkably more small-scale extramural fa- cilities, but also to (re)new(ed) organization of services and an increased use of technological resources. Additionally, ageing plays an important role. The fact that the amount of elderly people is growing, and people become older as well,