THERE ARE TWO GENERAL TYPES OF SPEECH RECOGNIZERS AVAILABLE FOR USE WITH CHILDREN; SPEAKER-INDEPENDENT SYSTEMS WITH A LIMITED VOCABULARY DESIGNED FOR USE WITH COMPUTER GAMES, AND SPEAKER-DEPENDENT DEVICES WITH LARGER VOCABULARIES THAT MUST BE "TRAINED"

THERE ARE TWO GENERAL TYPES OF SPEECH RECOGNIZERS AVAILABLE FOR USE WITH CHILDREN; SPEAKER-INDEPENDENT SYSTEMS WITH A LIMITED VOCABULARY DESIGNED FOR USE WITH COMPUTER GAMES, AND SPEAKER-DEPENDENT DEVICES WITH LARGER VOCABULARIES THAT MUST BE "TRAINED" BY USERS. NEITHER IS ADEQUATE FOR EDUCATIONAL USE BECAUSE THEY DON'T PAY ADEQUATE HEED TO CHILDREN'S SPECIAL SPEECH CHARACTERISTICS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP A SOFTWARE-BASED, SPEAKER INDEPENDENT SPEECH RECOGNIZER THAT FORGIVES ERRORS OF PRONUNCIATION AND IS TAILORED TO CHILDREN'S VOICES. INITIALLY RECOGNIZING 50-100 WORDS, THE SYSTEM WOULD EVENTUALLY ACCOMMODATE A MUCH LARGER VOCABULARY AND HAVE THE CAPACITY OF "LEARNING", I.E., OF IMPROVING ITS PERFORMANCE THROUGH "EXPERIENCE" WITH VARIOUS SPEAKERS AND IN VARIOUS NOISY ENVIRONMENTS. THE TECHNIQUES TO BE RESEARCHED COMBINES EXISTING STATE-OF-THE-ART RECOGNITION TECHNIQUES WITH INNOVATIVE MODIFICATIONS FOR SPEECH ANALYSISAND APPROXIMATION, BASED ON ORIGINAL CONCEPTS FOR PROCESSINGSPEECH.