Meet Shigetaka Kurita, the Father of Emoji

As the designer of the first emoji for cellphones, Shigetaka Kurita periodically fields requests that he expand the lexicon of the pictogram-like characters.

Ranging from symbols for food items like a "hot dog" to more forthright images such as a "middle finger," the requests for new emoji reflect people's growing reliance on emoji for injecting emotion and mood into a short e-mail or text message.