Engemma Oy “Bringing the gemstone business into the 21 st Century”

Engemma Oy

“Bringing the gemstone business into the 21st Century”

About

• Kari Niskanen• (IP) Networking background– TeliaSonera, Nokia Networks– Finland, Middle-East, Far-East

• Graduate Gemologist– 2009 – 2010 at GIA (Gemological Institute of

America)– Bangkok campus

Starting gemstone business

• Problems– No sufficient funds– No contacts– No practical expertise on gemstone pricing

• Solution– www-site for gemstone brokering services

The Big Problem

• Gemstone price is based on several individual quality factors

• Delivering these quality factors through electroning channels is… The Big Problem

Quality factorsQuality Factors i.e. Rarity FactorsIdentity Blue topaz

(Blue) Sapphire$20$2000

NaturalnessRuby, syntheticRuby, heat treatedRuby, natural

$25$750$7500

Size (weight) Pink tourmaline, 3.00 ctPink tourmaline, 15.00 ct

$200$2200

Color Sapphire, strong blue with greenish hintSapphire, strong blue with violetish hint

$1300$3300

Cut Tanzanite, face-up brilliance 55%Tanzanite, face-up brilliance 75%

$750$1400

Clarity Diamond, slightly included 2 (SI2)Diamond, very very slightly included 1 (VVS1)

$4000$6700

Origin(ruby, sapphire, emerald, tourmaline)

Ruby, MadagascarRuby, Burma (Myanmar)

$2800$3800

Assessing Quality Factors 1/2

Method

Measure

Unaided eye Magnification Gemology report

Identity Yes NoYes, Round Brilliant Dia.

Yes, Fancy Diamond(Yes), Colored Stone

Yes

Naturalness No No Yes Yes

Weight (size) Yes No No Yes

Color No Yes NoYes, Round Brilliant Dia.

Yes, Fancy DiamondNo, Colored Stone

Cut No Yes NoYes, Round Brilliant Dia.

No, Fancy DiamondNo, Colored Stone

Clarity NoNo, Round Brilliant Dia.

No, Fancy DiamondYes, Colored Stone

Yes Yes

Origin No NoN.A. Round Brilliant Dia.

N.A. Fancy Diamond(Yes), Colored Stone

N.A., Round Brilliant Dia.N.A., Fancy Diamond

Yes, Colored Stone

Assessing Quality Factors 2/2

Method

Measure

Unaided eye Magnification Gemology report

Equipment• Refractometer• Scale• Caliper

• Tweezers• Proper lighting• Neutral background tray• (Comparison stones)

• Bright Field loupe• Dark field loupe• Gemology microscope

• Full laboratory equipments

Procedure

•Identity- Refractometer•Weight- Scale•HxWxD-Caliper

•Usually done by the seller

•Color- slightly rocking between the tweezers•Cut - slightly rocking between the tweezers, “on the move”- shape, symmetry and polish from static positions•Clarity- Colored stones

• Separation synthetic from natural gemstones- Identification of “birth marks”, i.e. inclusions•Detecting gem treatments-Identification of altered “birth marks”, inclusions- Identification of inclusions created by gem treatments•Clarity- Diamonds

Provided by a gemological laboratory, e.g.

• American Gem Society• Asian Institute of Gemological Science• Gemological Institute of America• Swiss Gemological Institute

Conclusion

• Gemstones have to be assessed on site in person in order to evaluate them fully– Requires Training and expertise

• Exception: Round Brilliant diamonds can be purchased without seeing the product based on a Gemology Report

Gemstone trade centers

The problem

• Sufficient and diverse gemstone supply is available only at certain trade centers over the globe

• Gemstones need to be assessed on site in person for a complete evaluationRequires time and money consuming trips on sites

and browsing numerous wholesalers• Exception: Round Brilliant Diamond

But what about current gemstone www-sites?

• http://www.gemselect.com/sapphire/sapphire-368934.php

• Based on photographs or simple videos– Cannot deliver sufficient visual information for

complete evaluation– Serious gemstone dealers are not attracated to

them

The Solution

• New photography technique provides a remote gemstone assessment with the same functionality and accuracy as with on site– full 3D view and motion control by a mouse– Zoom-in up to 10 times magnification– Bright field and dark field views– Controlled lighting– Plus more: measuring grid, light adjustment, color

samples and full depth of field

The imaging solution

1. Gemstone is photographed with macro lens in four degree-incremento 4050 separate camera angles

2. From each camera angle several photographs are takeno ~10 000 photographs totally

3. Photographs taken from the same imaging angle are combined using special softwareo High Dynamic Range (HDR)

imageo Utmostly sharpo Better color reproduction

Post processing

• Combined photographs are post processed in two ways:1. The subject is centered

o This eliminates a wobbling effect in a final video or 3D-applet

2. A shadow is added for the subjecto This creates three dimensional experience in the final

video or 3D-applet

• Both processes are done automatically by an external software

Final video and 3D applet

• Photographs are “fed” to video processing in predefined order– Like creating a movie from still photographs

• 3D applet on a user computer requests photographs from the server in a stream-like manner as the object (gemstone) is being handled using the computer mouse– i.e. turning, tilting, rocking, rotating, zooming in/out,

switching the background between dark field and bright field

Why Innofun?

• Idea from Digipolis (Jukka Auraneva) which provides services for start-up businesses

• This type of concept has many motion related aspects video is practically the only media for presenting the concept

Video production

• Straightforwarding– Startp-up meetings

• information exhange (gemstone and evaluation 101, material)

– 1. script• wants vs. no-can-dos

– 1. version• Test audience

– 2. script– Final version

• Test audience

• Feedback via e-mail– Not the best practise– Face-to-face meeting, video or phone conference better

Putting the video to work

• Investors• Subcontractors• Partners• Customers

Benefits

• Visuality– Motion, motion, motion

• Time saving– 3 minute video vs. 10 minute power point

presentation• Some motion related aspects nearly

impossible to present using static pictures or text