Recently, the famous Austrian optical company Swarovski launched the world’s first telescope powered by artificial intelligence, AX Visio. AX Visio binoculars, specifications are 10×32, 10x magnification, 32mm diameter objective lens conventional configuration. The most eye-catching thing is that this telescope is driven by AI and has a built-in AI image recognition model that can identify more than 9,000 species of birds and mammals. It is an artifact for bird lovers and wild photographers. AX Visio is the world's first artificial intelligence-enabled binoculars. When shooting, when an animal is correctly focused, just press a button and the integrated system will display 4 quarter circles to indicate that recognition is in progress. It only takes about 5 seconds. After the model analysis is completed, the legend display will be superimposed and the accurate name of the observed animal will be displayed on the screen.
The AI model can be used to automatically identify captured birds and other creatures, and the captured photos can also be shared, and an open interface is provided to allow its functions to be expanded.
In addition to on-site instant recognition, AX Visio can use its mobile application to synchronize images to the mobile phone for recognition.
It is reported that its AI function is derived from the integrated Merlin Bird ID of the database mobile application released by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for bird identification. Other specialized models are also integrated for identifying mammals (Mammal ID), dragonflies (Dragonfly ID) and butterflies (Butterfly ID), etc.
According to Swarovski, the AX Visio development process took about five years and involved about 390 "hardware parts." The binoculars are equipped with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for object recognition processing.
It is expected that this device will have a long product life cycle and will be constantly updated and improved. In order to provide functional expansion, Swarovski provides an open "open programming interface" for this product, allowing third-party developers, advanced users (or skilled hackers) to DIY customize or expand the functionality of the device.
Featuring Marc Newson's industrial design, AX Visio includes a built-in digital camera, compass, GPS and discovery sharing capabilities to "instantly show your peers where you've seen the animal." Visio devices can also be connected wirelessly to the "SWAROVSKI OPTIK Outdoor App" which runs on smartphones. The application manages sharing of photos and videos taken through binoculars.
