Patent ID: 7240050

Claim:
A method of automated graphics generation in response to a user request comprising: determining a measure of similarity between the user request and one or more stored graphical examples to measure whether the one or more stored graphical examples are adequate for creating one or more new graphical illustrations in accordance with the user request; if the user request and the one or more stored graphical examples are similar, searching for at least one matching graphical example among the one or more graphical examples for the user request; if the user request and the one or more stored graphical examples are not similar, systematically decomposing the user request into sub-requests and the one or more stored graphical examples into graphical fragments in accordance with at least one of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the one or more graphical examples, and searching for at least one matching grapfical fragment among the one or more graphical examples for the user request; composing the one or more new graphical illustrations from at least one of the at least one matching graphical example and the at least one matching graphical fragment, using a pattern-based composition; and storing the one or more composed graphical illustrations in a database for use by the user; wherein the determining, decomposing, searching and composing steps utilize a cooperative critiquing technique between a user and a system for automated graphics generation.