Developing HCA

The HCA system is designed to satisfy a consumers’ reasonable expectation that cut standards describe the quality and appearance of a diamond. It aims to simplify the complex variables and issues involved in describing and rating the visual appearance the performance of diamonds in a comparative manner.
 
A prototype system, with limited data input, has been in use since November 2000 on a diamond information and price comparison website www.pricescope.com owned by Dr Leonid Tcharnyi. A desk-top software program that considers girdle thickness and culet size is now available for purchase. In time we aim to account for additional factors such as minor facets and symmetry.
 
The three factors commonly discussed during a consumer’s diamond buying experience are brilliance, fire (or dispersion) and scintillation. Consumers and the trade readily accept these factors, and attempting to define and describe them has been the basis of many studies. However human physiology is complex and defining scientifically what we observe and enjoy when we look at a beautiful diamond may not be capable of able rational analysis, the main value of these factors may be for the convenience of communication. For instance the very fact that we view a diamond with two eyes rather than one means most instruments and analysis are already laden with a false assumption.
 
Brilliance, fire (or dispersion) and scintillation will be defined, and relationships between them discovered during the course of this study will be explained.