Review of the theory, principles, and design requirements of human-centric Internet of Things (IoT)

The rapid evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, with ever more profound implications for humans and societies, has triggered visions and initiatives to re-align the Next-Generation IoT with what works for humans and humanity first. However, despite the increased push towards “human-centric” IoT, it is still poorly understood what “human-centric” actually means in this context, how it is interpreted and embedded into the design, by whom, and for which purposes. To address these questions, we conducted a systematic literature review (N = 84) on the theory, principles, and design requirements of human-centric IoT. A key observation is that, despite the recent increase in research on humane perspectives for IoT, “human-centredness” often still seems to be used primarily as a label and overarching paradigm, not leading to a profound change in the underlying practices. We found no shared understanding of what “human-centric” implies in this context or common agreement on which principles human-centric IoT should be built upon. Furthermore, our analysis confirmed the predominance of technology-oriented fields, with a traditional approach towards user involvement and limited involvement of other disciplines. Overall, our findings point towards an apparent discrepancy between how contributions are positioned and framed (“human-centric”), the practices and assumptions they are based on, and their actual impact and ability to orient existing efforts towards genuine human-centric outcomes and key values. Based on the results, we formulate directions for future research aimed at building a more human-centric and empowering IoT.