| Summary: | The article looks at how the combination of an expert system and a novel laser-cutting technique could boost the value of rough diamonds. While a diamond may be forever, its value is far from set in stone. It depends on the four C's: carat, cut, colour and clarity. But while the first three can be measured objectively, assessing a diamond's clarity involves a certain amount of subjectivity and can leave experts disagreeing about the grade and value of a stone. Now researchers at Cambridge University's Institute for Manufacturing claim to have devised a way to make the grading of diamonds and other precious stones more consistent. Together with his colleague Matee Serearuno, Dr. Tony Holden has developed an optimisation system called iGem. The system uses a set of rules, distilled from the judgments of four diamond experts, to determine the clarity, and hence the grade of each stone. When a stone is identified as a borderline case between two grades, the system uses an optimisation technique, called a genetic algorithm, to explore the different ways in which the stone could be cut to maximise its value.
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