My constant companions before falling asleep, aside from my smartphone, is a pillow and my smart speaker which I use to help me fall asleep. I know I’m supposed to not use any devices as the screens actually do not help my circadian rhythm so I really should be satisfied with the latter two. If you would like to have both your pillow and the speaker in the same space, this new concept for a “companion” may be the answer to that.

Designer: Woojin Shin, Subin Kim, Hyorung Choi

Oa is a speaker that you can use as a pillow to embrace (not to lie on) to help you fall asleep if that’s a problem that you’re having. But more than just something that can play white noise or sleep music, it actually is designed to capture the life of the companion (meaning you) and the device. It’s a bit weird to actually be embracing your speaker when you’re trying to fall asleep but it’s probably the next step in the evolution of our relationship with devices.

The shape of this companion is like any oval-shaped smart speaker with one major difference: there’s a huge hole in the middle which they call curved grooves. And of course, the material used is smoother and softer since it’s meant to be embraced by the user and may even be tossed and turned as you sleep. There are functions familiar to smart speaker users, like playing music or white noise with a timer but it also gives off some “vibrations” to keep you warm and help you sleep.

One other unique thing that the Oa brings is that it will be able to store white noise when you leave it alone at home and it can be your companion while you sleep. It adapts your background to your sleeping habits so if that’s something that can help you out to get better sleep, then you’ll get it from this. It also has the usual buttons and a USB-C charger to power it up when not in use. I most likely wouldn’t want to have a speaker as my pillow but it’s certainly an interesting concept.