Quantitative analysis of construction labor acceptance of wearable sensing devices to enhance workers' safety
Harrison Fugate, Hani Alzraiee
Abstract
Despite significant advances in technology applications in the construction sector, labor safety statistics in the USA suggest a need for significant improvement. In recent years, wearable safety devices (WSDs) have shown great prospects to address construction labor safety. Physiological monitoring wearable sensing devices and location tracking wearable sensing devices have been studied and found to increase construction site safety. However, the devices are not utilized by construction contractors on a wide scale due to labor concerns and hesitation in using these devices. Therefore, this paper presents a quantitative analysis of the construction labor perspective of the WDS and analysis the main reason behind this hesitation. A modified unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model is proposed to measure the user acceptance of WSDs. The study found that a slight minority (46%) of field laborers would not voluntarily agree to use the biometric wearable sensing devices and the majority (59%) would not voluntarily agree to use the location tracking wearable sensing devices. An association was found between behavioral intent to use a biometric wearable sensing device and perceived performance expectancy, perceived effort expectancy, and the social influence of family/loved ones and coworkers. An association was found between behavioral intent to use a location-tracking wearable sensing device and perceived performance expectancy, data security, and social influence of family/loved ones and coworkers.