A Vocal Tract Segmentation and Analysis over a European Portuguese MRI Database

• Author(s): Inês Carbone ; Paula Martins ; António Teixeira ; Augusto Silva
• Date: 2013
• Origin: Electrónica e Telecomunicações
• Subject(s): speech production; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; European Portuguese speech; speech production; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; European Portuguese speech
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Knowledge of the speech production mechanism is essential for the development of speech production models and theories. Magnetic Resonance Imaging delivers high quality imaging of soft tissue. To our knowledge, there are no complete systematic Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies ofEuropean Portuguese production. With this work, we intendto create a database of Magnetic Resonance Imaging imagesof European Portuguese and to implement segmentation techniques well known on the image processing field, but rarely used on the context of vocal tract segmentation. We present 2D vocal tract contours as well as their evaluation using a similarity metric, the Pratt Index. This metric allows not only to validate the segmentation technique, but also to infer on the differences among the sounds in study. Knowledge of the speech production mechanismis essential for the development of speech production models and theories. Magnetic Resonance Imaging delivers high quality imaging of soft tissue. To our knowledge, there are no complete systematic Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies of European Portuguese production. With this work, we intend to create a database of Magnetic Resonance Imaging images of European Portuguese and to implement segmentation techniques well known on the image processing field, but rarely used on the context of vocal tract segmentation. We present 2D vocal tract contours as well as their evaluation using a similarity metric, the Pratt Index. This metric allows not only to validate the segmentation technique, but also to infer on the differences among the sounds in study.