This now has been discussed in Wolfram blog posts by Michael Trott:
Part 1: Making Formulas… for Everything — From Pi to the Pink Panther to Sir Isaac Newton
Part 2: Using Formulas... for Everything — From Complex Analysis Class to Political Cartoons to Music Album Covers
Here is one of the example apps from blog - go read it in full - fun! Don't miss the link to download the notebook with complete code and apps at the end of the blog.
