BrillianceScope Strengths - GoodOldGold.com

Diamond Assessment in Direct or Strong Lighting Conditions

The BrillianceScope is perhaps one of the most important technologies to be introduced into the industry and while still a young technology and still gaining popularity, it is a vital tool in assessing light return within diamonds and the intensity of it. All of our clients who come to our store and compare diamonds of various BrillianceScope results with the human eye confirm time after time it's correlation with real world observance of fire and scintillation in direct light conditions.

I was first made aware of the instrument in 2000 when it came under harsh criticism from various cutters. This initially cast a dark cloud of skepticism over the machine in my eyes but curiosity got the best of me and I wound up sending 5 diamonds from my inventory (all whose fire & scintillation varied) to Gemex to either confirm or deny the veracity of it's results. To my surprise each diamond came back EXACTLY as I thought it would as I had already been familiar with FireScope(tm) technology. Since then I have also published a web page demonstrating how our proprietary DiamXray technology correlates to BrillianceScope data and how the 2 different technologies actual confirm the results of each other.

What is the BrillianceScope?

How does the BrillianceScope work?

The BrillianceScope in it's simplest form is a photo-spectrometer. The procedure for testing a diamond involves placing a diamond face down & centered on a thin transparent glass plate. When the lid is closed the diamond is encased in a flat white dome with an opening on one end where the light is transmitted into the diamond. The light itself is a concentric ring of direct light which is placed over the 5 most critical areas over the crown of the diamond. As the light source moves from position to position the machine scans in the image of the diamond and sends those images to a program which separates the white light pixels from the colored light pixels and reports back to the tester a quantative and digital analysis regarding the amount/intensity of "white light" and "colored light" being returned out of the diamond under those light conditions. The BrillianceScope also examines the movement of that light between the light positions and provides a reading on "scintillation". Scintillation, plainly defined, is the movement of both white and colored light within the diamond as the diamond is moving, the observer is moving, the light source is moving or all of the above. Here are the results as observed after an analysis on a 2.03ct round brilliant cut diamond. Although it says "SAMPLE" across the center, the images and results shown are of the actual diamond tested.

The BrillianceScope examines every single diamond it tests under the same exact light conditions and could care less where the diamond is from or who cut it. It is an excellent 3rd party analysis which is completely unbiased which makes this an important tool for the gemologist/appraiser in this field. There is more science than meets the eye with the BrillianceScope which I'd like to share as well.

Within the software we are able to examine what facets are giving off the most intense reflections of light. We can examine which facets are giving off the strongest bursts of white light return and/or colored light return. In these next graphics we are taking a look at light views 1-5 and strictly looking at white light return. You'll notice on the BrillianceScope menu at the bottom of the screen buttons for "Fire", "Scintillation", "White Light" & "Color Light". By clicking on the "White Light" button we can view strictly the white light return within the diamond.

What this graphic is showing is that this particular diamond has INTENSE white light return being emitted out of the "star facets" and also around the center under the table. Under our proprietary DiamXray these are areas that appear as "black" which translates to intense light return being transmitted out of the crown of the diamond at a high angle (ie. the observers eyes). We can observe "white light return" within the diamond from each of the 5 primary positions which helps TREMENDOUSLY with our study of light return within diamonds.

When we click on the "Color Light" button the computer strips away the white light return and shows only those portions within the diamond emmiting colored light return. Here is the same diamond in Light View 1 (as above) but showing only "colored light return".

If I want to delve even deeper, the BrillianceScope will also break down how much of the primary colors (Yellow, Blue, Red & Green) are being transmitted out of the diamond. I can click on the appropriate button seeing only that color and where it is being transmitted within the diamond. The BrillianceScope shows us plainly that yellow and blue are the strongest colors that are dispersed in a diamond in direct light conditions. In the below graphics I clicked on the "Yellow" button which of all the colors is the 2nd most prominent color after blue. So this following graphic is stripped of all white, blue, green and red light return showing only the yellow(ish) light return within the diamond.

When we click on the "Scintillation" button the on menu we see the combo of both white and colored light within the diamond at light view 1 minus the diamond. Pretty neat.

	Light View 1	Light View 2	Light View 3	Light View 4	Light View 5
Commentary	Primary bursts of white light occuring off lower girdles (under table) which are thenamplified through the stars.	Primary bursts of light off of arrowheads (pavilion mains). Extremely intense.	Primary bursts of light off arrowshafts (pavilion mains).	Again, primary bursts off arrowshafts.	Same plus secondary reflections throughout.
White light return
Colored Light Return
Both

Now what I am about to say is very very important.

The human eyes can not differentiate the complexity and breakdown of this analysis. For example when we as humans observe a diamond like the above IT WILL look incredibly awesome in direct light conditions. As a matter of fact I would go so far as saying that it will be ONE OF THE MOST beautiful diamonds you'll ever observe in direct light conditions but you must understand that the human eyes cannot break apart the differences between white and colored light as the BrillianceScope does in it's controlled analysis. Were we to hold the above diamond under direct light conditions the PRIMARY OBSERVANCE will be of FIRE or COLORED LIGHT return and SCINTILLATION. If we were to take the same exact stone under diffuse light, office light conditions, the PRIMARY OBSERVANCE will be that of BRIGHTNESS or WHITE LIGHT return. The BrillianceScope does not assess the optical metric of BRIGHTNESS accurately as defined in the new cut grading systems since that involves *contrast* which the BrillianceScope does not do.

MOST DIAMONDS DO NOT SCORE ANYTHING IN THE VERY HIGH RANGE when observing the bar graphs. Here are the typical results of what many of the diamonds on the market are cut too.

Over the years, and with regards to the assessment of fire and scintillation in direct lighting we have found the following corellations in our studies.

1. In just about each circumstance BrillianceScope results can be explained with reflector technologies. There is a direct corelation between the 2 technologies which we have documented.
2. Our own studies with the BrillianceScope with relation to fire corellate with GIA's study of DCLR (dispersed colored light return). The conclusion of both our studies was if you lengthen lower girdle facets and star facets you incease fire in diamonds with ideal proportions.
3. The more leakage that exists in a diamond as observed under reflectors has a direct bearing on the Bscope score.
4. The more points of black as observed in reflectors indicates an increase in scintillation, reflected in Bscope results and is observable to the human eye.

Click on next to learn about the limitations/deficiencies of this technology.