Patent ID: 7259839

Claim:
A method of measuring a physical characteristic relating to location and/or dimensions of a facet of a diamond, the method comprising the steps of: illuminating the diamond to visually distinguish said facet from adjacent facets when viewed from a predetermined viewing location; capturing an image of the diamond as viewed from said viewing location; determining positional data of at least one point located on an edge of said facet by analyzing the image, wherein said analyzing comprises identifying a discontinuity, internal to a corresponding silhouette boundary of the captured image, in the properties of light transmitted from the diamond to the viewing location, and constructing a data set representing location and/or dimensions of the facet using said positional data, wherein said data set may be used in computer analysis to provide a user with information relating to a physical characteristic of the diamond, such as symmetry, and/or in computer modeling of light response characteristics of the diamond to provide the user with an assessment of diamond cut quality.