Estimation of vocal tract shape of vowels for children

This paper presents the methods used for vocal tract shape estimation i) Covariance method ii) Lattice Method. The study aims to estimate vocal tract shape of vowels /a, e, i, o, u/ uttered by children and covers the children in the age group of 4 to 18 years. In addition images of children articulating vowels were taken to obtain the lip area of child. A comparison of vocal tract shape obtained with lip area assumed to be 1cm
²
is done with the shape obtained by actual lip area. In case of vowel /u/ the normalized area values obtained were found to be reduced for most of subjects when accurate lip area was given. This could be due to value of lip area less than 1 cm
²
. Vocal tract shape of 6 year old child is presented.