Developing a scientific visualization tool for Inner articulators

This study has been performed in order to present a scientific visualization tool for visualizing the movements of their Inner articulators for Tamil speech sounds. Block matching algorithm is functional for tracking the movements of the inner articulators. Three step search algorithm has been used to achieve the motion estimation with high accuracy and to handle large motion vectors. Experiments are performed based on MRI data obtained from the speaker and three dimensional visualization of the vocal track for the Tamil speech sounds (during the speech production). The result indicates clear movements of parameters such as lips, tongue, jaw and facial surfaces. Also the movements of inner articulators are visualized and data analysis is also presented. Thus all the data which are collected together could be exposed for progress the teaching and learning of foreign languages (in our case, the Tamil language), as well as for speech synthesis based on a physiologically relevant articulatory model.