Researchers have modelled a pair of tweezers to mimic the shape of the 4.3 centimetre average beak of the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) - an intelligent species of bird known to use simple tools. This design was then 3D-printed, with a flexible part connecting the two halves.
To assess how easy the tweezers were to use the team recruited human participants to transfer glass beads of 3, 5, 8 and 14 millimetre diameter from one dish to another in various tests, with their fingers, traditional tweezers and the new bird-inspired tweezers. They were timed to see how long the task took and then surveyed and asked how easy each task was.
The results showed that the new tweezers had a similar completion time to standard tweezers with 3 and 5 millimetre beads, but were also faster to use with larger 8 and 14 millimetre beads. Most users also reported that the bird-inspired tweezers were easy to use.
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