Abstract:
The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates integrating natural language input and graphics in a cooperative manner. In particular, as natural language input is entered by a user, an illustrated or animated scene can be generated to correspond to such input. The natural language input can be in sentence form. Upon detection of an end-of-sentence indicator, the input can be processed using NLP techniques and the images or templates representing at least one of the actor, action, background and/or object specified in the input can be selected and rendered. Thus, the user can nearly immediately visualize an illustration of his/her input. The input can be typed, written, or spoken—whereby speech recognition can be employed to convert the speech to text. New graphics can be created as well to allow the customization and expansion of the invention according to the user&#39;s preferences.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The subject invention relates generally to animation and in particular, to generating an illustrated or animated scene that corresponds to natural language input in real time. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Throughout the last several years, computer users have incorporated both desktop and mobile computers in their lives due in large part to the efficiency and convenience that these types of devices often provide. Despite the many advances of computer technology and its presence in so many different aspects of people&#39;s daily routines, some computer-related tasks continue to lack full performance optimization due to assumed obstacles and barriers; and thus remain inefficient and cumbersome to perform. The integration of natural language processing and graphics generation is one such example. In practical terms, imagine a user has a movie idea with a very weak or vague story line that he would like to propose to his supervisor. To support his relatively shallow text, he would like to add illustrations to help his supervisor visualize the idea. Using conventional systems and techniques, the user must scavenge through a multitude of image sources to find any images that, at best, remotely convey his text and/or the meaning of the text. Unfortunately, this task can be painstakingly slow, impracticable, and even hinder user productivity and performance. 
     In educational scenarios, students are often tasked with creative writing assignments as a means to learn vocabulary and proper word usage and grammar, to improve writing skills and to foster creativity. However, many learning tools currently available to students inadequately satisfy these needs. In many cases, for instance, the student is limited to words or text only—no pictures can be incorporated. When including pictures is an option, too much time is often required to find the appropriate one or else only a limited variety of pictures is provided to the student. Thus, there remains a need for a more flexible system or tool that facilitates user efficiency and performance. 
     SUMMARY 
     The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. 
     The subject invention relates to a system and/or methodology that provide a novel approach to associating animations with natural language processing. In particular, the system and method provide for generating a scene or animation based at least in part upon text entered in a natural language form. This can be accomplished in part by selecting one or more images and templates according to the user&#39;s input and then applying the appropriate images to the appropriate templates to generate the animation. As a result, a user can readily view an illustration of their text as it is provided or entered (in natural language). Thus, graphics and/or animation can be rendered dynamically, thereby relieving the user of the task of searching through any number of databases for the relevant image(s) to correspond to his/her text. 
     The subject invention can be accomplished in part by analyzing the user&#39;s natural language input and then rendering the most appropriate graphical illustration corresponding to the user&#39;s input. According to one aspect of the invention, natural language input can be analyzed one sentence at a time, for example, in order to generate a potentially different illustration for each sentence. The generation of each illustration can depend on the input. Through the use of natural language processing, various types of information can be extracted and identified from the input such as the “actor”, “action”, “location” or background, object, as well as other functional roles pertaining to the input including, but not limited to mood, color, dimension, or size. This information can be characterized in XML format, for example, which facilitates identifying and selecting the most suitable graphical image for each respective piece of information. Using the XML-based information, the appropriate image(s) can be accessed from a graphics library and assembled to create a scene that is representative of the input. It should be appreciated that other languages or formats in addition to XML can be utilized as well to carry out the subject invention and such are contemplated to fall within the scope of the invention. 
     The graphics library can include a plurality of default actors, actions, objects, and backgrounds. For example, the default actors can include a man, a woman, a dog, a cat, etc. . . . Thus, when the user inputs “the woman jumped”, a generic image of a woman (female actor) jumping can be generated and visualized almost immediately after it is entered by the user. The number of times an action is performed can be determined by the form of the input. For instance, “the woman jumped” can indicate a rendering of the woman performing a single jump, whereas “the woman was jumping” can indicate a rendering of the woman jumping more than once or continuously until the next input is received and processed. 
     In addition to the default set of graphics initially provided to the user, the graphics library can also be customized by each user. That is, the user can readily create his or her particular actors, actions, backgrounds, and objects as well as replace any existing ones. Consequently, the user can personalize the graphic environment and use the desired vocabulary such as slang terms, made-up terms, technical terms, and/or uncommon dictionary terms. 
     Moreover, an environment is created that can provide an immediate visualization of a scene to the user based on any text entered by the user. Furthermore, as a plurality of text is entered, the scenes can accumulate and be stored in the order in which they were generated to yield a series of scenes. The scenes can be assembled and replayed such as in a movie format. Sound or speech can be added to individual scenes, actors, actions, objects, and/or backgrounds or to the overall series as well. 
     The natural language input can be entered in the form of speech whereby various speech-to-text recognition techniques can be employed to translate the speech into a form suitable for natural language processing. Due to the extensibility of the invention, it can be utilized in a variety of personal, educational, and commercial applications across different age groups and languages. 
     To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the invention are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed and the subject invention is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other advantages and novel features of the invention may become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a high-level block diagram of a natural language illustration system in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a natural language-to-illustration conversion system in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a natural language-to-illustration conversion system in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an item generation system that facilitates the replacement of existing or the creation of new items for use in the natural language illustration system of  FIG. 1  in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an exemplary user interface of a natural language illustration system in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary user interface of a HELP screen to assist a user when employing a natural language illustration system in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIGS. 7-10  illustrate exemplary user interfaces that demonstrate a sequence of natural language input followed by a scene that corresponds with at least the most recent input in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 11  illustrates an exemplary user interface employed to create new or replace existing actors in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 12  illustrates an exemplary user interface employed to create new or replace existing actors in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIGS. 13-18  illustrate exemplary user interfaces that demonstrate a sequence of natural language input followed by a scene that corresponds with at least the most recent input in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 19  illustrates an exemplary user interface employed to sketch new or replace existing functional objects or items in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 20  illustrates a screen capture of an exemplary animated scene that makes use of the newly sketched object from  FIG. 19  in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 21  is a flow chart demonstrating an exemplary methodology that facilitates generating illustrations in an instant manner from natural language input in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 22  is a flow chart demonstrating an exemplary methodology that facilitates creating an illustrated story corresponding to natural language input in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 23  is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary methodology that facilitates viewing, modifying, and/or storing a story created by the method of  FIG. 20  in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 24  is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary methodology that facilitates creating new graphics and associating them with words for use in generating instant scenes based on natural language input in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. 
         FIG. 25  illustrates an exemplary environment for implementing various aspects of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The subject invention is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the subject invention. It may be evident, however, that the subject invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the subject invention. 
     As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. 
     The subject invention can incorporate various inference schemes and/or techniques in connection with generating new graphics to correspond to actors, actions, objects, and backgrounds. For example, dimensions, position, and the like can be automatically optimized and accommodated for depending on the content of the input. 
     As used herein, the term “inference” refers generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic—that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources. 
     The terms “template” and “skeleton” are also used throughout the description of the subject invention. “Template” generally refers to a placeholder for an image. This placeholder can (eventually) move, turn, change size, etc. Templates can be used in different ways. For example, a template can be used as a placeholder of an object (e.g., a ball) that follows a parabolic trajectory when kicked (or otherwise acted upon) by an actor. In addition, a template can be used for an actor&#39;s head placeholder. Similarly, one can imagine a 2-D actor&#39;s body created with templates where each template contains a part of the body (right forearm, right shoulder, left forearm, etc.). Inside a template, one could also imagine having an animation (series of images) instead of a static image. For instance, a user may want to use an actor&#39;s head based on a series of images of a head that blink the eyes and move the mouth instead of a static head. 
     Skeletons are generally more related to 3-D motion files (but the same could also be applied to 2-D). For instance, in the exemplary screen captures which follow (e.g.,  FIGS. 8-10  and  13 - 17 , infra), a series of images for any action can be pre-rendered (i.e., the woman kick, the man kick, the dragon kick, the man drink, etc). For example, one motion file for “kick” can be applied to all or almost all the actor meshes. The motion file makes a skeleton do the action (e.g., kick) and then this same motion file can be applied to the different actors&#39; meshes. This works because all of the bones of the actors&#39; skeletons are named the same. For instance, the same motion file for the “kick” action can be applied to the mesh of a woman and the mesh of a man. 
     The subject invention links the arrangement of graphical images with natural language processing. Thus, as natural language input is processed, appropriate images can be instantly rendered according to the natural language input. In practice, essentially any kind of natural language input can be illustrated. For example, as a user types in a story, a series of illustrated or animated scenes can be generated to go along with the story. Both children and adults can utilize this kind of tool to facilitate learning, story telling, communication, comprehension, and writing skills. For purposes of discussion, the subject invention will now be described from the perspective of a user writing a story; though it should be appreciated that many other applications are possible and within the scope of the invention. From at least the perspective of story writing, the invention mitigates the drudgery and the distraction of (manually) searching through art or other image stores for just the right picture by automatically selecting the most appropriate pictures and rendering them on the fly as the story is created and continues to unfold. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is shown a high-level block diagram of a natural language illustration system  100  in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. The system includes a language processor component  110  that can receive input such as text or audio input from a user. The input can be provided by the user in natural language form such as “the dog jumped over the fence” rather than in a computer coded form. Furthermore, the language processor component  110  can support and analyze a language in natural language format. For example, aside from English, other languages can be processed as well. 
     Once received, the language processor component  110  can analyze the input and extract any pertinent information that identifies the types or names of images to render and the manner in which to render them. This information can be communicated to an animation engine  120  which selects and renders the appropriate images to match to the user&#39;s input. The animation engine  120  can pull at least one image and/or at least one template from one or more databases to provide an adequate visual depiction of the user&#39;s input. The images can include color or animation and can be scaled to an appropriate dimension with respect to the other images included in the overall scene. Thus, by simply entering natural language input into the system  100 , an animation or illustrated scene based at least in part upon that input can be created and readily viewed by the user. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , a natural language-to-illustration conversion system  200  is depicted in accordance with an aspect of the invention. In general, the system  200  can create a new scene that the user can replay for each statement entered into the system  200 . The system  200  includes a natural language processing (NLP) component  210  that processes the statement into a form usable by an animation engine  220 —which then dynamically illustrates and/or animates the statement for the user&#39;s view. 
     In particular, an NLP module  230  can be called upon receipt of the new statement (input) when an indication of the end of a sentence or end-of-sentence indicator (e.g., hitting “Enter”, a hard return”, a period) is detected. The NLP component  210  can understand the basic semantic structure, or logical form, of a given sentence—that is, WHO (subject-actor) did WHAT ACTION (verb-action) to WHAT (object) WHERE (location or background)—based on conventional NLP guidelines. 
     For example, the logical form of the sentence “On the beach the man kicked a ball.” is: 
     
       
                 
         
             
             
         
      
     
     The logical form information can also include different types of attributes for each actor, action, location, or object. Such attributes include but are not limited to dimension, size, color, and mood or expression. Once the sentence is converted to its logical form, the NLP module  230  can read the logical form information and eventually translate the logical form information into core terms. 
     A core term is essentially a word that is associated with a graphic and that may have a plurality of synonyms that could be used in its place. Because natural language is infinite, it is practically impossible to manually associate every word with a graphic. Thus, to reduce the burden of rendering a graphic for every word, some words can be considered synonyms of other words already associated with graphics. For instance, consider the words dwelling, home, house, cabin, and cottage. Each of these words stands for related objects and hence could be illustrated in the same way. Therefore, it may be unnecessary to generate different graphics for each word. Instead, they can all be assigned the core term HOUSE and associated with the same corresponding graphic. So in the sentence—“My cat ran through the cottage.”—the NLP module  230  can identify that the core term for “cottage” is HOUSE and then use the core term HOUSE in the logical form rather than the input word (cottage). 
     In addition to resolving synonym usage, there are many linguistic issues that must be resolved before information that is necessary and sufficient to represent the meaning of a sentence can be extracted for use by the graphics component. Anaphora resolution, negation, ellipsis, and syntactic variation are a few representative examples. 
     When writing a story or any type of prose, it is inevitable that the user will employ pronouns to mitigate unnecessary repetition and to create a natural, coherent, and cohesive piece of text. For example, in the two samples (A and B) of text below, “man” is repeated in each sentence in sample A, whereas pronouns are used appropriately in sample B: 
     
       
         
               
               
             
           
               
                   
               
               
                 Sample A: 
                 Sample B: 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 One day there was a man jogging 
                 One day there was a man jogging 
               
               
                 on the beach. The man found a 
                 on the beach. He found a ball and 
               
               
                 ball and kicked it to distract 
                 kicked it to distract the dragon. 
               
               
                 the dragon. The dragon ignored 
                 The dragon ignored the ball and 
               
               
                 the ball and ran toward the 
                 ran toward him instead. 
               
               
                 man instead. 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The pronoun “He” in the second sentence and “him” in the third sentence refer to a man in the first sentence. Pronouns cannot be passed to the graphic component  220  without first associating them with the appropriate graphics. The problem of resolving the referent of a given pronoun (“anaphora resolution”) can be dealt with by the NLP component  210 . The NLP component  210  can understand who “he” and “him” are and communicate this information to the graphics component  220 , which otherwise would be at a loss to associate a graphic with the pronoun. The NLP component  210  includes the referents of pronouns (and core terms thereof), rather than the pronouns themselves, in the logical form. Hence, in the subject system  200 , users can employ pronouns at their leisure to mitigate the redundancy of particular nouns as their stories develop. 
     Other linguistic issues such as negation and ellipsis can also arise in the process of understanding text which can make it more challenging to communicate only interesting and relevant information to the graphics component  220 . Take, for example, the following sentence which exemplifies both issues: 
     The man was not jumping on the beach, but the woman was. 
     Notice that only man is explicitly associated with jumping in this sentence. However, because the verb is negated, the NLP component  210  must be careful not to pass the information that man is the actor and jump is the action in this sentence on to the graphics component  220 . Moreover, even though there is no explicit verb jump following woman, the NLP component  210  must extract the information that woman is the actor of interest and jump is the action of interest. In the end, the graphics of a woman, not a man, jumping on the beach should be generated to coincide with the author&#39;s (user&#39;s) intentions. 
     Finally, syntactic variation can be resolved by the NLP component  210  as well. Sentences like C and D below are different syntactically, but the difference is normalized by the NLP component  210  so the system  200 , in general, needs to do no extra work to generate the same graphics for either sentence (C and D): 
     
       
         
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Sentence C: 
                 Sentence D: 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 The man kicked the ball. 
                 The ball was kicked by the man. 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     Thus, the NLP component  210  addresses and resolves synonym usage and a variety of linguistic issues before composing the logical form of a sentence. Overall, the fine-grained analysis of the NLP component  210  minimizes the work needed to be done by the graphics component  220  while providing the user with flexibility of expression. 
     Once the logical form information is determined, it can be translated into output  240  in an XML format. It should be appreciated that in one approach, the XML formatted output includes only core terms rather than any input words; however other approaches can include any relevant input words in the output  240 . The NLP component  210  communicates the output  240  to the animation engine  220  which includes an XML parser module  250  and a scene generator module  260 . The output  240  from the NLP component  210  becomes the input for the XML parser module  250  that can read the actor, action, object, and/or location information. The XML parser module  250  calls the scene generator module  260  to access the relevant actor, action, object, and/or location from a graphics library  270 . The scene generator module  260  arranges the respective images from the graphics library  270  to generate a scene  280  which may be in 2-D or 3-D space and either static or animated. 
     The graphics library  270  can include a plurality of images for a variety of actors, actions, objects, and locations. Alternatively or in addition, the graphics library  270  can also include a plurality of templates/skeletons for actors, actions, locations, and/or objects to which one or more images can be applied to result in a dynamic graphical rendering of the user&#39;s sentence. In addition to using existing graphics or images in the graphics library  270 , graphics or images can be rendered dynamically (on-the-fly) using 3-D meshes, motion files and/or texture files. 
     The user can also customize the graphics library  270  by creating new images or modify existing ones. This can be accomplished in part by employing pen and ink technology such as on a tablet PC, importing (e.g., copy-paste; drag-drop) 2-D images such as photos or video stills, and/or adding sound. When a new image is made, the user assigns it a name which gets added to the NLP component&#39;s term dictionary or database as a core item or term. Thus, imagine a new actor is created and named “Gus”. Whenever the user enters a sentence and includes “Gus” therein, the image of Gus as created by the user is accessed from the graphics library  270  and is rendered in the scene  280 . 
     As demonstrated in the diagram  300  of  FIG. 3 , suppose that a user  310  has entered the following statement  320 : 
     A man kicked a ball in the cave. 
     The marker of the end of an input (e.g., period, hard “return”, etc.) can be detected which signals the natural language processing of the text input to begin ( 330 ). The resulting output  340  in XML format can identify MAN as the actor, KICK as the action, BALL as the object, and CAVE as the background (location). This output  340  can then be passed to an animation engine  350  and in particular to an XML parser  360  that construes the output  340  and communicates it to a scene generator  370 . The scene generator  370  retrieves a MAN graphic, a KICK graphic, a BALL graphic, and a CAVE graphic from one or more graphics stores  380  and renders the graphics as indicated by the XML format into a scene  390 . The scene  390  can be animated depending on whether any of the graphics are animated and/or appear in 3-D. 
     When the user is finished entering statements, the generated scenes can be combined for replay like a movie or slide show presentation. Each set of scenes (each movie) can be saved and replayed again at a later time. Audio can also be added to each scene or to the overall presentation. Furthermore, the graphics and “words” of each sentence can maintain a cooperative relationship; thus, each scene can maintain a link to its respective sentence. For instance, if the user wants to reorder at least one of the sentences, doing so also reorders the corresponding scene to ultimately produce a new movie. The new movie can be saved as well. 
     As previously mentioned, the graphics library or database can be customized by the user, thereby allowing the user to alter or add new image items thereto. A block diagram of an exemplary image generation system  400  is depicted in  FIG. 4  in accordance with an aspect of the subject invention. The system  400  includes an image generation component  410  that creates new image items such as actors, actions, locations and/or objects based on input from the user. The user can sketch or draw the new item or make use of one or more templates to facilitate the creation process. For example, to create a new male actor that resembles the user&#39;s friend TOM, the user can retrieve a male actor template (skeleton). The template can be of a “man” graphic capable of performing animation with the face portion left blank for the user to complete—either with a drawing or with a digital image of TOM&#39;s face. Once completed to the user&#39;s satisfaction, this particular graphic can be named TOM and stored in the appropriate image database  420 . When the user enters a statement that includes the new actor&#39;s name, the NLP component (e.g.,  FIG. 2 ,  210 ) associates the name TOM with an identical new core term, TOM, and sends that information to the graphics component (e.g.,  FIG. 2 ,  220 ). Anytime the user includes TOM in a sentence, the TOM graphic can be rendered in the resulting scene. 
     Pre-existing images can be altered by way of an image editor component  430 . As with new graphics, pre-existing graphics can be replaced by changing color, texture, fabric patterns, sound, dimension, and the like. Replaced graphics can be stored as new graphics with new names or under their original names depending on user preferences. Any images saved to the image database(s)  420  can be accessed by a scene generator  440 . 
     Turning now to  FIGS. 5-18 , there is shown an exemplary sequence of screen captures demonstrating the employment of a dynamic natural language-to-illustration conversion system by a user as described in  FIGS. 1-3 , supra.  FIG. 5  depicts an exemplary user interface  500  of the system when the system is launched. When assistance is needed before or during use of the system, a HELP screen  600  such as the one shown in  FIG. 6  can be displayed to the user. The HELP screen  600  can include any or all of the terms for which graphics are associated (e.g., exist in the graphics library) as well as other tips or information to aid the user. 
     Now suppose that the user is ready to begin writing his story. As shown in  FIG. 7 , a first sentence  710  (sentence  1 ) is entered: Once upon a time a dragon flew over a beach. Note that as indicated in the figure, a period is not yet entered and no scene is rendered in the viewing window  720 . After entering the period (end-of-sentence indicator), an animated scene of the dragon flying over a beach can be seen in the viewing window  810  as demonstrated in the screen capture  800  in  FIG. 8 . As a guide, the sentence being illustrated can be viewed in the window as well  810 . To further assist the user in determining or learning how a scene is generated, the user can select a debug control  820  to view the actor, action, background, and/or object extracted from the user&#39;s sentence. According to the first sentence, dragon is the ACTOR, fly is the ACTION which is performed continuously in this case, and beach is the BACKGROUND or location. 
     In  FIG. 9 , the scene from the previous sentence is still viewable in the window  910  as the user enters sentence  2 —Suddenly, it fell down—in the appropriate field. As soon as the period is entered, the user can see an animation of the dragon falling down in the window  1010  ( FIG. 10 ). Such action can occur continuously or a set number of times as defined by the user and/or by the particular term used (e.g., “fell”=1 time; “falling”=continuous). 
     Now imagine that the user would like to add a new actor graphic. To do so, the user can select a “sketch” or other similar control  1020 . Other navigation related controls  1030  may be present as well to assist the user in viewing previous scenes or to see all the scenes in order from beginning to end (publish  1040 ). 
     When the sketch control  1020  is selected, a new window  1100  can be opened to display a plurality of image templates as well as other controls that facilitate the creation of the custom image. In this instance, the user is creating a custom boy (male) actor named Littleguy. Because the user is making use of the boy actor template, the user only is asked to fill in the head portion of the actor. The rest of the body appears and behaves in a default manner. As shown in  FIG. 12 , it appears that the user has imported (e.g., cut-pasted, drag-drop) a photo of a person&#39;s head and face and then manually added further detail to the hair to complete Littleguy&#39;s custom appearance. Once the user clicks “OK”, the image of Littleguy is saved to the graphics library or database. 
     Continuing on with the story that began in  FIG. 7 , the user is entering his third sentence (sentence  3 )—Littleguy kicked the dragon—in the appropriate field in  FIG. 13 . As soon as the period is entered, the user can see animation of Littleguy kicking the dragon in  FIG. 14 . The user continues with sentence  4 —The stunned dragon rose and ran away as shown in  FIG. 15  and animated in  FIG. 16 . In  FIG. 17 , the user enters his last sentence—Littleguy was thirsty and drank his water in the forest. Once again, after entering the period, the animation of Littleguy drinking in the forest is shown ( FIG. 18 ). 
     As previously mentioned, new actor images can be created using a sketch feature or pad. In some cases, an appropriate template can be selected and employed to assist in the creation of new images. Alternatively, new images (or graphics) can be created without the use of a template (e.g., from scratch). For example,  FIG. 19  illustrates an exemplary user interface for drawing new object images. In this case, a user has drawn an image named “rock”. When the term “rock” is entered by the user such as “The man kicked the rock”, a scene as illustrated in  FIG. 20  can result. 
     Various methodologies in accordance with the subject invention will now be described via a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the subject invention is not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance with the subject invention, occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with the subject invention. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 21 , there is a flow diagram of an exemplary method  2100  that facilitates linking graphics with natural language input to instantly render a scene. The method  2100  involves receiving natural language input from a user at  2110 . The input can be in sentence form that is typed, written (e.g., tablet PC), or spoken (e.g., speech-to-text conversion) by the user. More importantly, the input does not need to be coded or arranged in any particular order, but rather can follow natural language patterns for any language supported by the method  2100 . 
     At  2120 , the natural language input can be processed such as by using natural language processing techniques to yield a logical form of the input. The logical form can then be translated into output that is usable and understandable by a graphics selection engine. XML format is one such example. At  2130 , the XML formatted output can be employed to select and render the appropriate graphics (from a graphics library or database) to generate a scene corresponding to the user&#39;s initial input. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 22 , there is shown a flow diagram of an exemplary method  2200  that facilitates generating scenes which correspond to and illustrate a user&#39;s natural language input. The method  2200  involves receiving the user&#39;s input in sentence form to generate one scene per sentence such as one sentence at a time (at  2210 ). At  2220 , an end-of-sentence indicator such as a period or hard return (e.g., hitting “Enter) can be detected. Once detected, the input can be analyzed to determine the actor, action, object, and/or background (output) specified in the input at  2230 . 
     At  2240 , the output can be communicated to an animation engine, which can select a graphic for each of the actor, action, object, and/or background specified in the input (at  2250 ). At  2260 , the selected graphics can be arranged and rendered to illustrate the user&#39;s natural language input. The previous can be repeated (beginning with  2210 ) at  2270  for each new input (e.g., sentence) received from the user. 
     When no additional input is desired, the method can proceed to the method  2300  in  FIG. 23 . The method  2300  involves replaying the series of illustrated scenes in the order in which they were created as a cohesive movie-like presentation ( 2310 ). Each scene can include animation and color and appear in 2-D or 3-D space. At  2320 , audio can be added to the presentation and/or to individual scenes of the presentation. In addition, should the user wish to change some portion of the story, at least one scene can be modified or reordered by moving the corresponding text to its new position or by changing the appropriate words in any one sentence. The presentation can be “reassembled” and then saved for later access or replay at  2340 . 
     Turning now to  FIG. 24 , there is illustrated a flow diagram of an exemplary graphics creation method  2400  that facilitates expanding and customizing the graphics library from which graphics can be selected to generate scenes as described hereinabove. The method  2400  involves selecting a type of graphic template at  2410 , if available. For example, when the user wants to create a new male actor that resembles a friend, the user can select a male actor template or skeleton. At  2420 , the relevant new portions of the male actor can be created by the user. This can be accomplished in part by dragging and dropping or importing images such as photos or drawings created elsewhere onto the respective portion of the template. The user can also draw directly on the template in the appropriate locations such as by using pen and ink technology (tablet PC). 
     In practice, the male actor template may only require the user to add in the head and face portions. Other templates may allow for body portions to be modified or created from scratch. At  2430 , the new graphic can be named and saved to the appropriate graphics database or library. Once the graphic is named, the graphic will be rendered whenever that particular name or synonyms thereof are recognized as being any one of an actor, action, object, and/or background specified in the user&#39;s natural language input. 
     In order to provide additional context for various aspects of the subject invention,  FIG. 25  and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable operating environment  2510  in which various aspects of the subject invention may be implemented. While the invention is described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can also be implemented in combination with other program modules and/or as a combination of hardware and software. 
     Generally, however, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular data types. The operating environment  2510  is only one example of a suitable operating environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Other well known computer systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include but are not limited to, personal computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include the above systems or devices, and the like. 
     With reference to  FIG. 25 , an exemplary environment  2510  for implementing various aspects of the invention includes a computer  2512 . The computer  2512  includes a processing unit  2514 , a system memory  2516 , and a system bus  2518 . The system bus  2518  couples system components including, but not limited to, the system memory  2516  to the processing unit  2514 . The processing unit  2514  can be any of various available processors. Dual microprocessors and other multiprocessor architectures also can be employed as the processing unit  2514 . 
     The system bus  2518  can be any of several types of bus structure(s) including the memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus or external bus, and/or a local bus using any variety of available bus architectures including, but not limited to, 11-bit bus, Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA), Micro-Channel Architecture (MCA), Extended ISA (EISA), Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE), VESA Local Bus (VLB), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Advanced Graphics Port (AGP), Personal Computer Memory Card International Association bus (PCMCIA), and Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI). 
     The system memory  2516  includes volatile memory  2520  and nonvolatile memory  2522 . The basic input/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines to transfer information between elements within the computer  2512 , such as during start-up, is stored in nonvolatile memory  2522 . By way of illustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory  2522  can include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory  2520  includes random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available in many forms such as static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), static DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus (DRDRAM). 
     Computer  2512  also includes removable/nonremovable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media.  FIG. 25  illustrates, for example, a disk storage  2524 . Disk storage  2524  includes, but is not limited to, devices like a magnetic disk drive, floppy disk drive, tape drive, Jaz drive, Zip drive, LS-100 drive, flash memory card, or memory stick. In addition, disk storage  2524  can include storage media separately or in combination with other storage media including, but not limited to, an optical disk drive such as a compact disk ROM device (CD-ROM), CD recordable drive (CD-R Drive), CD rewritable drive (CD-RW Drive) or a digital versatile disk ROM drive (DVD-ROM). To facilitate connection of the disk storage devices  2524  to the system bus  2518 , a removable or non-removable interface is typically used such as interface  2526 . 
     It is to be appreciated that  FIG. 25  describes software that acts as an intermediary between users and the basic computer resources described in suitable operating environment  2510 . Such software includes an operating system  2528 . Operating system  2528 , which can be stored on disk storage  2524 , acts to control and allocate resources of the computer system  2512 . System applications  2530  take advantage of the management of resources by operating system  2528  through program modules  2532  and program data  2534  stored either in system memory  2516  or on disk storage  2524 . It is to be appreciated that the subject invention can be implemented with various operating systems or combinations of operating systems. 
     A user enters commands or information into the computer  2512  through input device(s)  2536 . Input devices  2536  include, but are not limited to, a pointing device such as a mouse, trackball, stylus, touch pad, keyboard, microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, TV tuner card, digital camera, digital video camera, web camera, and the like. These and other input devices connect to the processing unit  2514  through the system bus  2518  via interface port(s)  2538 . Interface port(s)  2538  include, for example, a serial port, a parallel port, a game port, and a universal serial bus (USB). Output device(s)  2540  use some of the same type of ports as input device(s)  2536 . Thus, for example, a USB port may be used to provide input to computer  2512  and to output information from computer  2512  to an output device  2540 . Output adapter  2542  is provided to illustrate that there are some output devices  2540  like monitors, speakers, and printers among other output devices  2540  that require special adapters. The output adapters  2542  include, by way of illustration and not limitation, video and sound cards that provide a means of connection between the output device  2540  and the system bus  2518 . It should be noted that other devices and/or systems of devices provide both input and output capabilities such as remote computer(s)  2544 . 
     Computer  2512  can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computer(s)  2544 . The remote computer(s)  2544  can be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a workstation, a microprocessor based appliance, a peer device or other common network node and the like, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to computer  2512 . For purposes of brevity, only a memory storage device  2546  is illustrated with remote computer(s)  2544 . Remote computer(s)  2544  is logically connected to computer  2512  through a network interface  2548  and then physically connected via communication connection  2550 . Network interface  2548  encompasses communication networks such as local-area networks (LAN) and wide-area networks (WAN). LAN technologies include Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI), Ethernet/IEEE 1102.3, Token Ring/IEEE 1102.5 and the like. WAN technologies include, but are not limited to, point-to-point links, circuit switching networks like Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) and variations thereon, packet switching networks, and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL). 
     Communication connection(s)  2550  refers to the hardware/software employed to connect the network interface  2548  to the bus  2518 . While communication connection  2550  is shown for illustrative clarity inside computer  2512 , it can also be external to computer  2512 . The hardware/software necessary for connection to the network interface  2548  includes, for exemplary purposes only, internal and external technologies such as, modems including regular telephone grade modems, cable modems and DSL modems, ISDN adapters, and Ethernet cards. 
     What has been described above includes examples of the subject invention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the subject invention, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the subject invention are possible. Accordingly, the subject invention is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.