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Harvested cereal needs to be separated into grain, stems of straw, and miscellaneous fragments such as husk known as chaff. Of these, the grain is the most valuable as it will be ground into flour, a process shown in the next article in this series. Long straw was also a valuable commodity, as it was used extensively for thatching, while the chaff was usually discarded. Separating grain and chaff from straw was accomplished by threshing, one of the first processes in arable farming to be mechanised, while removing the chaff is referred to as winnowing.
In ancient civilisations, threshing was performed by striking the cut crop using flails, as show in this marginal drawing in the Luttrell Psalter from the east of England. This is thought to have been made in about 1325-35, when this tiring and inefficient method was still widespread.
In ancient Egypt, oxen were used, first to trample the grain with their hooves and later to draw a heavy rotating sledge or roller over the cut crop. This was usually performed on a flat and elevated area, where the wind could blow away much of the generated chaff.
Goya’s greatest achievement in his series showing the seasons, and probably the finest of all his cartoons, is that for summer, seen here in his sketch of The Threshing Floor from 1786. Although the huge finished version is more finely detailed, his brushwork there is also surprisingly loose. Two horses used to tow the heavy roller at the far left are here seen at rest, as the labourers relax. They’re holding pitchforks, used to load the threshing floor with cut cereal and gather the straw when the load has been threshed.
In PS Krøyer’s Threshing in the Abruzzi from 1890, a century later, teams of oxen are trampling the crop to thresh it.
Jean-Léon Gérôme’s The Grain Threshers, Egypt (1859) shows this as one of the more traditional employments for animals, who are drawing a threshing sledge.
While much of the work of harvest remained intensely and exhaustively manual, some processes like the separation of grain seeds from inedible straw proved amenable to mechanisation.
In Franz Niklaus König’s Farmers, around the House;, or Farmer Family in the Barn from 1798, one of the early hand-cranked threshing machines is shown on the right, as the farmer is winnowing clouds of chaff from the grain it produced. Most barns were built with large openings at each end, to allow natural breezes to blow the chaff away and leave the denser grain in the large, shallow wickerwork trays used for winnowing.
By the end of the nineteenth century, animals and other sources of power were being used, as shown in Albert Rigolot’s painting of The Threshing Machine, Loiret from 1893, with a detail below. One of the early uses for steam engines was to power similar machines. The next step was to make those engines mobile under their own power, as traction engines.
Jean-François Millet’s portrait of Ceres (The Summer) from about 1864-65 shows her holding a traditional winnow in her left hand.
Storage was a major consideration, too. Although threshed grain generally keeps well, it’s prone to rodents and must be kept dry. A traditional solution was to build the sheaves of cut cereal into grainstacks, then protect them with a covering of thatch. These are different from the stacks of hay also common in the countryside, and played a major role in Impressionism.
Claude Monet first painted a series of canvases depicting grainstacks at Giverny, literally outside his back yard, in 1889. In the early autumn of 1890, Monet started a fresh series consisting of two grainstacks, now accorded Wildenstein numbers of W1266 to W1279. During that winter, the farmer was able to start threshing, and one of the grainstacks was consumed.
Apparently Monet paid the farmer to retain the single remaining grainstack so he could continue the series, allowing him to paint W1280 to W1290, each showing that single grainstack. After various delays during which Monet apparently made further adjustments to the paintings in the series, the first fifteen canvases were shown at an exhibition at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris, which opened on 4 May 1891. They all sold, for sums of up to 1,000 francs, and provided Monet with an excellent return for his winter’s work.
Looking at Grainstacks, End of Summer, considered to be one of the earliest in the series and numbered 1266, the trees behind the two grainstacks are still in full summer leaf, with no indication of the advent of autumn. Yet Monet’s signature gives the year as 1891. Looking at its paint surface in detail, some has been applied wet-in-wet and blended with underlying and adjacent paint, but many other brushstrokes have clearly been applied over dry underlayers.
Grainstack, Sun in the Mist, numbered 1286, is thought to be one of the later paintings in the series, apparently showing the sole remaining grainstack in the Spring of 1891. It too has multiple layers applied wet-on-dry, with many hatched brushstrokes in shades of orange and pink apparently applied over a well-dried surface. Below is a summary of the whole series.
Among the great dangers to grainstacks was fire.
Jules Breton’s The Burning Haystack from 1856 is mistitled, as it in fact shows a grainstack, as seen in the sheaves being removed from it in haste. The panic-stricken villagers must work quickly if they are to save a substantial part of their grain store for the coming winter.
Granaries incorporated an ingenious solution to exclude rats and mice: they were constructed on a support of staddlestones, each a pair of stones fashioned into the form of a mushroom. These are now commonly seen in the country, where they’re used to prevent drivers from running their vehicles over grass borders outside properties. Rats and mice are happy to climb vertical surfaces, but can’t cope with the overhang of the cap of a staddlestone, an ancient solution to the problem.
即使没有用过，你也很可能对外网的热门拍照社交平台 Snapchat 有所耳闻。
这个拍摄平台以搞怪和丰富的动态滤镜闻名，算是 AR 技术的一种早期应用形式。
它的开发商 Snap 公司野心不仅仅在于做一个热门应用。2021 年，这家公司推出了首款 AR 眼镜——第四代 Spectacles，成为该领域的先锋。
而在近日举办的 2024 Snap 全球生态合作伙伴大会上，Snap 带来了第五代 Spectacles 智能眼镜，也是第二代 AR 眼镜。
这不仅是一个比上一代更好用的 AR 设备，还是一个面向未来的 AR 软件+硬件平台。
前三代的 Spectacles 眼镜主要还是一个自带摄像头、能发 Snapchat 短视频的眼镜「时尚单品」，采用了多彩的镜框和圆形的镜片，看起来就像一个度假用的墨镜。
▲ 图源：Engadget
正式进军 AR 领域的第四代 Spectacles 眼镜一改活泼的外观，看起来相当严肃：厚厚的黑色镜框，以及棱角分明的镜片，像是一个更具份量的 3D 眼镜。
▲ 第四代 Spectacles，图源：The Verge
全新的第五代 Spectacles 大体延续了这一设计语言，只是总体要更圆润，眼镜柄要更粗。
▲ 第五代 Spectacles
虽然造型不如苹果 Vision Pro、Meta Quest 等头显设备那么夸张，但戴在头上，还是会因为太大而显得有点不协调。
226 克的重量也不算轻，相当于将一台国产大折叠手机挂脸上，比上一代的 134 克足足重了将近 70%。
大幅增重带来了更多的功能。上一代仅支持手势操作，这一代不仅新增了语音输入，还能在手机上安装 App 进行联动，不过依旧不支持眼动追踪，也不支持音频播放。
用户在手机上安装 Snapchat 应用后，就可以把手机当作 Spectacle 的「手柄」，可以用来当作直升机游戏的操纵台，或者高尔夫模拟器中的球杆。
除此之外，没有佩戴眼镜的用户，也可以通过手机摄像头，看看对面戴着眼镜的小伙伴在对着空气做什么了。
▲ 图源：CNET
上一代被诟病的续航也有了增加，从 30 分钟提升到 45 分钟，虽然提升幅度高达 50%，但依旧不算是优秀的水平。
不少外网评测者还提到一个喜闻乐见的升级：第 5 代 Spectacles 发热对比上一代大大减少。The Verge 表示，即使带它到气温三十多摄氏度的洛杉矶市区，眼镜也不会像以前那样因为过热崩溃了。
作为一个用来看的设备，新一代 Spectacles 最重要的提升是显示的视野范围大幅提升，从 26.3 度提升到 46 度的对角线视野，相当于距离 3 米的距离看一块又长又窄的 100 英寸（2.54 米）屏幕。
▲ 图源：CNET
考虑到用户已经把接近半斤重的设备夹在了脸上，这个大小其实是远远未能满足需求，跟苹果 Vision Pro 在现实世界变出 IMAX 大屏的效果比，更是相形见绌。
The Verge 尝试用 Spectacles 玩模拟高尔夫游戏，出来的效果很难称得上「未来感」。
▲ 图源：The Verge
不过，眼镜形态的 Spectacles 的一大优势是不需要通过摄像头捕捉外界环境，也不会遮住眼睛，和现实世界以及身边人没有那么强的「断连」感，因此也很适合协作。
CNET 评测者和一名 Snap 团队的成员尝试了使用 Spectacles 进行协作，眼镜可以识别附近的另一位佩戴者，然后进行体验的共享，并且还会利用多个摄像头，把房间扫描成一个混合现实的网格。
▲ 戴着眼镜就可以一起下棋，或者观棋
具体体验而言，即使是酒店环境这种小环境，两台眼镜之间的连接也不够实时。Snap 的目标是将连接体验拓展到更大的环境，例如户外，美术馆，或者展览会场。
和第五代 Spectacles 眼镜一起发布的，还有其搭载的全新「Snap OS」操作系统。
Snap OS 和 Vision Pro 上的 visionOS 类似，有一个在用户手上展开的主菜单界面，用户通过手势或者语音打开各种各样的应用。
▲ Snap OS 自带的网页浏览器，图源：The Verge
Snap 希望借助这个操作系统，吸引更多开发者为 Spectacles 平台开发 AR 应用，特别是能够协作、共享体验的 AR 应用。
Snapchat 应用有一个名为「Lens Studio」的创作平台，主要用于滤镜的开发。而全新的 Lens Studio 5.0 平台，则增强了 AR 开发能力。
开发者不仅可以跳过繁琐的编译环节，快速将项目推送至 Spectacles 眼镜，还能使用官方的 Spectacles 交互工具包快速构建应用体验，而不是从零开始设计软件交互。
Snap 机器学习（SnapML）平台还允许开发者直接在应用中使用自定义的机器学习模型，来识别、追踪和增强物体。
对于这些 AR、VR 或者 XR 平台来说，内容和应用是始终绕不开的坎。苹果通过和多家应用和应用提供商联手，并直接支持 iPad 的海量应用，尽可能让这个新生的平台快速成熟。
Snap 也走了类似的道路，和其他品牌合作推出了应用体验，比如乐高官方的「BRICKTACULAR」游戏，允许用户一起搭积木，未来还会有《星球大战》IP 的更多内容。
除此之外，Snap 比苹果 Vision Pro 和 Meta Quest 走得更远，愿意为大模型开发者提供比较敏感的摄像头、麦克风的权限，让他们为 Spectacles 添加多模态大模型，直接看用户所看，听用户所听。
Snap 本身也和 OpenAI 合作，Spectacles 集成了自家基于 ChatGPT 打造的「My AI」聊天机器人， 也引入了 OpenAI 的多模态 AI 模型。
CNET 测试了一下 Spectacles 的 AI 功能，尝试生成一些「3D Emoji」，发现机器人反应比较慢，也不能总是清晰理解用户的要求。
Spectacles 的提供方式类似订阅制，开发者计划需要每个月 99 美元（折合人民币约 702.16）的费用，并且需要一次订阅一年，也就是一次需要缴费 1188 美元（折合人民币约 8425.89 元），停止订阅后，需要将眼镜寄回 Snap 公司。
除了这个方案之外，Spectacles 不对外销售，普通消费者无法在市场买到这款产品。
也就是说，对于开发者来说，他们不仅需要支付高昂的费用测试 Spectacles 软件，短期内也无法收到来自用户的反馈，更不用提收入转化。
关于 Spectacles 对开发者的吸引力，Snap CEO Evan Spiegel 的看法是这样的：
我认为这与开发人员对早期台式计算机或早期智能手机真正兴奋的原因是一样的。我认为这是一群有远见的技术专家，他们对未来感到非常兴奋。
在 Snap 预想中， AR 生态构建是一个十分长久的过程，Spiegel 认为，在这个世纪的末尾，Spectacles 才会成为一项真正有意义的业务。
▲ Snap CEO Evan Spiegel
从这个设计不够轻便简洁，显示效果还比较局限，生态依赖开发者积极性的第五代 Spectacles 来看，Snap 确实还有很长的路要走。
但或许他们要进一步加快脚步了。Meta 有望在下周推出全新智能眼镜产品，CEO 扎克伯格声称，这将是一副「无可挑剔」的 AR 眼镜。
根据彭博社 Mark Gurman 的爆料，苹果 Vision 团队正在继续试验几种不同的穿戴式 VR/AR 眼镜产品，其中一款类似 Ray-Ban Meta 的智能眼镜。
实力和资源都要更强的玩家在后面追赶，曾经的领头羊 Snap，或许需要拿出比目前更好的产品和方案。
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