Critical Factors Affecting Intention of Use of Augmented Hearing Protection Technology in Construction

Abstract

Despite the risk of occupational hearing loss, many noise-exposed construction workers are unwilling to wear hearing protection devices (HPDs) due to their concern about the degraded audibility of environmental sounds. Augmented hearing protection technology that uses advanced artificial intelligenc–based signal processing to amplify safety-critical sounds offers great potential to address the issue. To facilitate the acceptance of this new technology, it is critical to understand the user’s intention of use of augmented HPDs. The current state-of-the-art, however, offers little understanding about the user’s intention of use of such new technology. This paper fills the gap by exploring factors that determine the user’s intention of use of augmented HPDs in the construction environment. Data were collected using questionnaires from 298 practitioners in the US, China, and Japan. The structural equation modeling (SEM) method was adopted for analyzing the collected data. The results denote that the intention of use of augmented hearing protection technology is determined by the user’s perceived usefulness of which the perceived ease of use, hearing health, and safety consciousness, trust on autonomy are among the most critical factors. The findings of this study enrich understandings of the theories of technology adoption in construction. It presents a further step towards critical design and implementation considerations for the success of augmented hearing protection technology in the future.