Is that a Lapland Bunting? Have you just spotted a Baikal Teal? Smart binoculars that combine with a camera and app are promising to help bird watchers identify species in real time, without having to lug around heavy gear.

Gone are the days when twitchers used to take a sketchpad and book into the field: the hobby has fully embraced technology with scopes, binoculars, telephoto lenses and apps all commonplace. It has also seen a boom since the pandemic, when many connected with nature.

The AX Visio from Swarovski Optik was launched at CES in Las Vegas and is being promoted as the world’s first smart binoculars. It can identify 9,000 species of bird and mammal thanks to its 10x magnification, 32mm lens and 13 megapixel camera, all connected to an AI smartphone app that uses Merlin which is linked to eBird, the largest database of birds created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Clay Taylor is Swarovski’s in-house twitcher and says he just used the device to identify 50 species in the Christmas bird count in Texas. “I did not bring my big scope. I did not bring my SLR [camera]. I was very pleased. And it actually correctly identified two rare species … I needed those photos to be able to justify that I saw what I said I saw,” the naturalist marketing manager said.

The company hopes to widen the scope of the binoculars so they can be used by other naturalists and even trainspotters and planespotters to identify their targets.

Richard Archer, a conservation officer for the RSPB in Dorset, said the device was a “great idea”.

“Birders often dream: ‘What if I could just capture that view I can see through my telescope, wouldn’t that be wonderful?’ And I think that is the holy grail that we’d all like to get to. The alternative at the moment is that we carry around our scope, with our binoculars with our extremely large lens on the camera, which is bulky and prone to damage…very expensive, very heavy.” He also said having proof of what was spotted was crucial

At $4,800, the AX Visio, which is designed by Marc Newson, doesn’t come cheap, although Archer points out that some serious birders can carry around £10,000 worth of equipment. Swarovski Optik is a leading company in the field, which was spun out of the Austrian crystal maker after the war by the founder’s son, Wilhelm Swarovski, who was an avid hunter and outdoorsman.

Also for nature enthusiasts at CES, bird lovers can discourage their cats from slaughtering wildlife with the Flappie, an AI-powered cat flap that shuts out your moggie if it has prey in its mouth.

Designed by two Swiss brothers who endured a childhood of cats bringing in unwanted “gifts”, it claims its sensors are 90 per cent accurate. The cat has to drop its prize before entry is granted.

Combination health devices were also on show at CES with a “multiscope” that is a thermometer, electrocardiogram, oximeter and stethoscope, rolled into one.

Made by the French company Withings, the BeamO is designed for regular home check-ups of the heart and lungs that can be shared with your doctor.

“Doctors have told us they’re really excited to be able to have the data, so that someone from home can actually have the recordings on a daily basis and then be able to share that with them so that when they’re doing their diagnosis, they have much more information to base it upon,” said Elizabeth Coleon, chief marketing and growth officer at Withings.

She believes it will appeal to those who struggle to see a doctor or have conditions like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). BeamO is the size of a thermometer and will cost £219.95 once it goes on sale in June, subject to regulatory approval.

Those suffering from allergies may want to invest in the first house plant that has been genetically modified to become an air purifier. The French biotech company Neoplants, which is funded by Silicon Valley investors, has developed the Neo P1, a modified pothos plant, which it claims is the equivalent of 30 houseplants in terms of air purification capacity.

Scientists from Neoplants have changed the metabolism of the plant and enabled the micro-organisms around it to enhance its purifying capabilities. Despite being based in France, the $179 plant is being launched in the US first because of European laws restricting GM products.

The Neoplants CEO and co-founder, Lionel Mora, criticised these laws as being political and “completely de-correlated from the science”. He says Neoplants is looking to launch the Neo P1 in the UK next because its GM laws were more “scientific” and moving towards the US model. He says the GM plant is non-invasive and cannot self-propagate.