Young users accept NoMix toilets--a questionnaire survey on urine source separating toilets in a college in Switzerland.

We studied user behavior and acceptance of NoMix toilets by collecting 271 questionnaires from young adults. We discriminated between short- and long-term users (months of habituation). Most respondents noticed that the NoMix toilet is different. Nevertheless, the existing NoMix technology was well accepted regarding design, hygiene and smell in this institutional setting. Only few respondents changed their sitting or flushing behavior. The necessity to sit when urinating might be slightly problematic (62% sit), but it seems possible that people adopt this new behavior required by the NoMix toilet. General acceptance of the NoMix toilet was high: 70% of respondents found the idea convincing--many for environmental reasons--87% were willing to move into an apartment with a NoMix toilet, and 20% would pay substantially more for a NoMix toilet. We informed about the NoMix toilet with instructions for use in the toilet cabin, an information poster, and an information leaflet that we distributed after questioning. Our information was noted by most respondents and significantly increased the knowledge about and the acceptance of the NoMix toilet. We recommend that future pilot projects with NoMix toilets consider a well devised information policy to support decision making and acceptance of this new technology.

Infants' recognition of a face revealed through motion: contribution of internal facial movement and head movement.

The experiment reported here explores 3-month-old infants' ability to recognize a human face from a specific motion pattern lacking static facial features. A woman's face was covered with black makeup and numerous white triangles. It was videotaped while the woman was pretending to interact with a baby. A soft rubber mask was prepared likewise and was videotaped while being moved and deformed by hand. In one condition, the face or mask showed facial movement only, while in a second condition there was internal movement plus head movement. The two stimuli were presented either in upright or in upside-down orientation. Results of 48 subjects indicate that the discrimination of face and mask was easier when the stimuli were presented upright. The absence of head movements did not influence the discriminability. These results suggest that 3-month-old infants organize the moving triangles on the face in the upright orientation into a coherent facelike structure.

Kinetic contours in infants' visual perception.

3-month-old infants' perception of "camouflaged" forms that are only visible when moving was studied. Displays were used in which figure and ground had an identical random dot texture, and no edge indicated the form of the figure. The form was invisible when stationary. Discrimination of 2 different forms was tested (a) when the forms were visible only through motion, and (b) when the forms appeared as stationary white figures on black ground. The babies discriminated the forms in both conditions. Furthermore, when infants were habituated to one of the moving forms and subsequently presented with the same and a new static form, they looked longer at the new form. This indicates that they recognized the static form as either the same or different from the moving form seen before, although the optical sources of information were completely different. At 3 months, infants can therefore effectively use kinetic information to organize the visual input in higher-order structures.