Automatic speech recognition system for Malay speaking children

Automatic speech recognition or ASR system in short, is the most recent innovation in human computer interaction. An ASR system recognizes human speech and transforms them into outputs such as text or any other machine readable outputs. ASR is increasingly used in various applications such as dictation system, voice or speaker recognition and so on. Despite the advancement in the development of ASR system, not many of such system are developed for children. Children today are increasingly using computers for many daily activities including for education. The lack of ASR system for children causes them to be lagging in behind adult users. One of the reasons for the poor development of ASR system for children is the difficulties of obtaining or creating the speech corpus database of children. Unlike adults, researchers find it difficult to engage children in recording process. This research aims at developing an ASR system for Malay speaking children with the use of a small speech database. The ASR system developed in this research has the ability to recognize words at 76% accuracy.