Automated prediction of children's age from voice acoustics
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68407700%3A21230%2F23%3A00362904" target="_blank" >RIV/68407700:21230/23:00362904 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2022.104490" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2022.104490</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2022.104490" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.bspc.2022.104490</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Automated prediction of children's age from voice acoustics
Original language description
The emergence of a variety of applications aimed at video gaming, parental control, education, specific language impairment, child development assessment, and speech therapy create demands for age-targeted approaches. Yet, there is a lack of methods providing robust and easily interpretable age estimation of speakers from early childhood to post-pubertal stage. This study aims to provide a fully-automated approach for children's age prediction based on voice acoustics. Sustained phonation of vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ recorded from 255 speakers (132 girls and 123 boys) ranging between 4 and 15 years of age were analysed. The first three formant frequencies and fundamental frequency across each vowel were automatically evaluated and used as features for linear and nonlinear regressors to estimate the prediction model. We demonstrate rapid, accurate age estimation with reasonable accuracy of an average 1.3-year difference from actual children's chronological age. The lower age prediction error of 1.2 years was achieved for boys compared to 1.5 years for girls. The early childhood age from 4 to 5 years was less accurate for prediction. No effect of utterance duration on estimated results was observed. Our results present a robust technology with clinically interpretable outcomes insusceptible to overfitting that enables to predict children's age in a wide range of ages. Better prediction accuracy for boys than girls appears to reflect the faster vocal tract growth for men. The lower prediction accuracy in early childhood can be attributed to rapid nonlinear development and greater variability in the level of motor control maturation.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
30206 - Otorhinolaryngology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA19-20887S" target="_blank" >GA19-20887S: Population standard of acoustic-phonetic characteristics in children's speech</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Biomedical Signal Processing and Control
ISSN
1746-8094
e-ISSN
1746-8108
Volume of the periodical
81
Issue of the periodical within the volume
March
Country of publishing house
NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS
Number of pages
10
Pages from-to
1-10
UT code for WoS article
000908924100001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85145648792