1. A card based business communication assembly, comprising;
a card substrate, said card substrate having first and second faces, first and second transversely extending edges and first and second longitudinally extending sides;
a pigmented coating applied to at least one of said first and second faces of said card substrate; and
a high resolution printed image is applied over said pigmented coating.
2. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 1, wherein said pigmented coating includes white particulate material.
3. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 1, wherein said pigmented coating includes a particulate material having a color other than white.
4. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 1, wherein said high resolution printed image is provided on a transparent film that is adhered over said pigmented coating.
5. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 4, wherein said high resolution printed image is produced in a reverse format.
6. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 1, wherein said pigmented layer is provided over said one of said first and second faces in a varying pigmentation amount ranging from a high density of particulate material to a low density of particulate material.
7. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 1, wherein said pigmented layer is applied so as to create multiple layers that decrease said coloring of said card substrate.
8. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 4, wherein said transparent film is applied over a layer of substantially clear adhesive.
9. A card based business communication assembly, comprising;
a first layer, said first layer having first and second faces, first and second transversely extending edges and first and second longitudinally extending sides, each of said first and second faces has a first appearance;
a second layer applied over said first face of said first layer, said second layer including an adhesive component and said second layer substantially covers said first layer and extends between said first and second transversely extending edges and first and second longitudinally extending sides;
a third layer applied substantially completely over said second layer, said third layer including pigments sufficient to conceal said first appearance of said face of said first layer; and
a fourth layer applied over said third layer, said fourth layer having first and second faces and further including a printed image provided in a reverse format on said second face, such that said printed image is visible through said first face.
10. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 9, wherein said third layer is disposed on said fourth layer over said printed image.
11. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 9, wherein said printed image is produced at a resolution of greater than about 150 lines per inch.
12. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 9, wherein said third layer includes a particulate material having a sufficient density to conceal said first appearance of said first layer.
13. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 9, wherein said adhesive component of said second layer is substantially transparent.
14. A card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 9, wherein said fourth layer is a polyester based material having a thickness ranging between about 2 mils to about 30 mils.
15. A method of making a card based business communication assembly, comprising the steps of;
providing a first layer, said first layer having first and second faces, first and second transversely extending edges and first and second longitudinally extending sides, each of said first and second faces has a first appearance;
applying a second layer over said first face of said first layer, said second layer including an adhesive component and said second layer substantially covers said first layer and extends between said first and second transversely extending edges and first and second longitudinally extending sides of said first layer;
coating a third layer over said second layer, said third layer including pigments sufficient to conceal said first appearance of said face of said first layer;
printing an image on a fourth layer said fourth layer having first and second faces; said image is provided in a reverse format on said second face, such that said printed image is visible through said first face; and
adhering said fourth layer over said third layer.
16. A method of making a card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 15, including a further step of repeating the step of coating to produce at least one successive layer of a pigmented coating.
17. A method of making a card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 16, wherein the step of repeating is conducted between two and five times.
18. A method of making a card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 15, wherein the step of printing said image on said fourth layer occurs before the step of coating.
19. A method of making a card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 18, wherein the coating is applied over said image such that said coating surrounds said image.
20. A method of making a card based business communication assembly as recited in claim 15, including removing said film such that said image transfers to said coating on said second layer after the step of adhering said fourth layer over said third layer.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method comprising:
at a communication service, receiving a communication request of an account, the communication request including communication properties that include at least one destination endpoint;
transmitting a routing request to a route option service, the routing request including the communication properties;
at the route option service, identifying at least two routing options capable of completing the communication request and identified according to a priority heuristic, and transmitting a routing response to the communication service, the routing response including a route priority list of identified routing options;
transmitting a communication cost request to a cost service, the communication cost request including the communication properties;
at the cost service, generating a communication cost from the communication properties and returning a communication cost response to the communication service; and
at the communication service, upon receipt of the routing response and the communication cost response, executing a communication with a routing option of the routing priority list and committing a cost of the communication to the account.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least two routing options comprises querying a route table of routing options indexed by communication properties; and wherein generating the communication cost comprises querying a cost model with the communication properties.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising providing a cost interface to the communication cost service; updating the cost model according to requests received through the cost interface; and providing a routing interface and updating the route table according to requests received through the routing interface.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising measuring quality of executed communication of a routing option of an executed communication; and
through the routing interface, updating a quality parameter of the used routing option of the route table according to the measured quality.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein routing options of the route table include an internal cost parameter; and at the route option service, transmitting an internal cost parameter update to the cost service through the cost interface when a new internal cost parameter of a routing option is set; at the cost service, updating a communication cost within the cost model when an internal cost parameter update is received.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein transmitting the routing request to the route option service and transmitting the communication cost request to the cost service are initiated in parallel.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least two routing options according to a priority heuristic comprises analyzing intended communication content and identifying routing options with transport capabilities of delivering intended communication content to the destination endpoint.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising calculating an effective internal cost of communicating intended communication content; and prioritizing routing options of the route priority list in part according to the effective internal cost of the routing options.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein calculating an effective internal cost comprises calculating a number of message communications executed to communicate the intended communication content multiplied by the internal cost of an executed communication of the routing option.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least two routing options according to a priority heuristic comprises prioritizing a routing option that has not fulfilled a usage quota over a routing option that has fulfilled a usage quota.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein executing a communication with a routing option of the routing priority list comprises transforming content of the communication properties to a format compatible with a transport protocol of the selected routing option.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost is price of a communication is a monetary price, and committing a cost of the communication includes charging an account the monetary price.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein selection of communication cost is selected independent of route priority list.
14. A method comprising:
receiving a communication request of an account, the request including a maximum cost parameter and a set of communication properties including at least a destination endpoint;
compiling a route priority list of routing option according to the communication properties of the communication request;
delivering the route priority list to a communication service;
querying a communication cost according to the communication properties;
delivering the communication cost to a communication service; and
at the communication service, if the communication cost complies with the maximum cost parameter, selecting a routing option of the route priority list and establishing a communication through the selected routing option and committing the communication cost to the account; and
at the communication service, if the communication cost does not comply, alerting an account resource of a communication failure.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein alerting an account resource comprises responding to the communication request with a communication failure message.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the communication failure message includes alternative routing options; further comprising receiving a message that specifies a selection of an alternative routing option; and establishing a communication through the selected alternative routing option.
17. The method of claim 14, wherein alerting an account resource comprises transmitting an application transport message to a callback universal resource identifier (URI).
18. The method of claim 14, wherein a first routing option of the route priority list is communication over a first transport protocol and a second routing option of the route priority list is communication over a second transport protocol.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein establishing a communication through the selected routing option comprises transforming content of the communication properties to a format compatible with a transport protocol of the selected routing option.
20. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying at least two routing options according to a priority heuristic comprises analyzing intended communication content and identifying routing options with transport capabilities of delivering intended communication content to the destination endpoint.
21. The method of claim 20, further comprising calculating an effective internal cost of communicating intended communication content of the communication properties; and prioritizing routing options of the route priority list in part according to the effective internal cost of the routing options.