Tracking articulators in X-ray images with minimal user interaction: Example of the tongue extraction

Vocal tract X-ray image sequences are used to study articulatory phenomena and to design approximate articulatory models. The purpose of this paper is to describe an automatic tracking tool for extracting the contours of the tongue which is the most important articulator. Tracking the tongue in X ray images is an arduous task because it appears as a weak contour and above all because it is immersed among a lot of contours (teeth, palate, ...). Hence we have developed a robust algorithm that makes a snake based method and a motion based method cooperate. Significant results show the strength of the approach