AX Visio is the second instalment of Marc’s collaboration with leading optics manufacturer Swarovski Optik. Developed over five years, AX Visio is the world’s first AI-supported binoculars, allowing the user to identify over 9,000 types of wildlife in real time including mammals, dragonflies and birds, as well as capturing photos and video, sharing GPS coordinates, and Bluetooth pairing with a smartphone.

Marc sought to create an approachable and ergonomic object that belies the complex optical engineering and pioneering electronic technology that fit within the handheld device. The geometry of the device is inspired by vintage porro prism binoculars, like Swarovski Optik’s Habicht model. As with Marc’s design of CL Curio, the pocket-sized binoculars released in 2021, AX Visio has an extruded aluminium bridge, which here encompasses the three-scope construction of the piece: the third scope relays the image to the identification software, whilst the two primary lenses can also operate as analogue binoculars.

AX Visio 10x32 is composed of around 390 parts and is engineered in Swarovski Optik’s factory in Tyrol, Austria. 

“It was important to me to try to imbue the design with a kind of personality- I wanted them to feel approachable and usable. The inclination when designing high-performance items tends for them to be purposefully complex, and I was hoping to create something that was the opposite- intuitive and inviting.”

Available here