ANDRE SCHOENHERR/ Swarovski
- The AX Visio are a pair of AI-powered bird-watching binoculars that were unveiled at CES 2024.
- The binoculars can identify more than 9,000 types of birds and other wildlife.
- They come with price tag of around $5,000 and were designed by former Apple designer Marc Newson.
A new pair of AI-powered binoculars can turn even the most amateur birdwatchers into seasoned pros.
The Australian optical instruments company, Swarovski — not to be confused with the crystal jeweler with the same name — unveiled a more than $5,000 pair of binoculars called the AX Visio at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The binoculars use AI image recognition technology and data from the Merlin Bird ID database to help you easily identify more than 9,000 birds and other wildlife at the click of a button. They rely on a built-in camera that allows the binoculars to identify still or moving images of birds, and you can immediately share the photos and videos you create by pairing the binoculars with a smartphone.
You can also use the arrow markers in the display of the binoculars to mark any interesting birds or wildlife you've found. So if you're on a bird-watching trek with someone else, you can give them the binoculars and the markers will guide your friend to the target.
And if birds aren't your thing, the binoculars also come with databases to identify mammals, dragonflies, and butterflies, Engadget reported. The binoculars are designed to be "expandable," which means users can slot in new custom databases that suit their interests, according to the report.
When the writer and photographer Rick Bateman took the binoculars on a trip to Costa Rica, he was able to identify a host of common bird species ranging from tropical kingbirds to southern lapwings to scarlet macaws, he wrote in a review of the AX Visio.
Bateman said the display interface of the binoculars "took some getting used to at first," but once he got the hang of it, he "quickly and intuitively learned how to feed the system's camera with the right image quality to make an ID." In other words, the AX Visio could also double as a way for someone to practice their bird and wildlife photography skills.
The binoculars are the brainchild of Australian industrial designer Marc Newson — who helped develop the Apple Watch with Apple's former design chief Johnny Ive — and have been in the making for around five years. Newson's key priorities for designing the AX Visio were to ensure that they had a modern appearance and were comfortable to hold, according to Swarovski. They weigh a little over two pounds and are a little over six inches long.
The AI binoculars hit select retailers in February for anyone interested in trying them out.