Sociotechnical design factors in remote instrumentation with humans in natural environments

The use of telemetering and remote communication devices is becoming increasingly popular in clinical and social psychology. There are, however, a number of technical, economic, and social constraints that may limit severely the practical application of such instrumentation. A brief review of certain design factors including communication modality, social acceptability, complexity of the system, relative cost, data-reduction procedures, and FCC regulations is presented as a preliminary guide to system development.