International Journal of Computer Science Trends and Technology (IJCST) – Volume 10 Issue 3, May-Jun 2022

RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

A Novel Approach to Predict the Reason for Baby Cry using

Machine Learning
Sahithi Vesangi [1], Saketh Reddy Regatte [2], Baby V [3], Chalumuru Suresh [4]
[1][2][3][4]
Computer Science Engineering, VNR Vignana Jyothi institute of Engineering and Technology,
Hyderabad - India

ABSTRACT
Cry is the only medium where infants can communicate their pain to the world. They try to express various emotions and
feelings through cry, where sadness, grief, pain, and loneliness are few of them to mention. Parents often make an effort to
understand their baby’s pain and attempt to make them cheerful back again. Young parents who are new to parenting have less
experience in understanding their infant’s cry. Due to their hectic schedule, they are often busy which leaves them less amount
of time to spend with their kids. Due to this situation, these parents often feel irritated or frustrated with long period of cry. Lack
of understanding the reason makes them feel confused and helpless to stop them from crying and bring back to normal
condition. Therefore, a solution that can predict why a baby is crying by using modern machine learning techniques is the main
aim of this paper. We intend to build a system that can capture the baby’s cry in the form of audio. By performing audio pre-
processing methods and feature extraction using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), the CNN model is trained which obtained an
accuracy of 86.4%. Later, the Random Forest Classifier is used to classify the baby’s cry and predict reasons for the same. The
model generates 7 types of outputs namely: hunger, sleep, scared, temperature, burp, lonely and discomfort. Finally, to make the
system interactive we built a visual interface that can help parents to record their baby cry in real time and get the reason for the
same using the intended mobile application.
Keywords:- Baby Cry, Speech Recognition, Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Random
Forest Classifier.

I. INTRODUCTION
A study suggests that there are more than 130 million
babies born in a year, where on an average 250 babies are
born every minute [1]. Cry is the first gesture of a baby
entering into this world. In course of time cry is the only
medium where infants can communicate their sadness, grief,
and pain to other people. Though it is normal for the babies to
cry 2-3 hours a day in first two weeks, parents are sometimes
perplexed why their child is crying and are in quest for the
reason behind it. There are two types of baby cries like normal
cries where the child is experiencing pain or sadness and the
pathological cries occur when there is a disease that is
bothering the baby.
Visualize a scenario where a mother is taking care of an
infant. Suddenly if the baby starts to cry with no intentional
reason, it is very confusing for the mother to take an
appropriate decision to stop their cry. If this cry continues for
more than expected amount of time it causes irritation and
frustration for both parents and neighbours yet, the child is
still experiencing grief or pain with a particular problem.
However, traditional methods include feeding the baby,
offering a pacifier, making a baby sleep, taking for a walk in
the stroller etc. All the mentioned approaches are attempts to
stop the baby’s cry but exact reason of cry at that time may be
still unknown. Typically, baby cries are elicited by rhythmic
patterns imbibed between inhalation and exhalation.
Research on baby cry started in 1960s where Wasz–
Hockert identified types of baby cries by trained medical
practitioners [2]. Later, baby cry detection systems have been
invented that provided a solution to the parents to detect
baby’s cry when they are busy or when the cry goes inaudible
due to external noises. There are several datasets that provide
baby cry audio files like Baby Chillanto, ChatterBaby, iCOPE,
etc which have predefined set of samples classified into
different reasons of cry. Basic cry detection systems involved
using the process of capturing baby’s acoustic signals and
performing audio processing on the same. Many machine
learning techniques like CNN (Convolutional Neural
Networks), RBF (Radial Based Function) etc. are used to train
the models considering the spectrogram as the input feed.
Other methods like SVM (Support Vector Machine), and
SVM-kernel based techniques are also popular to perform the
detection of baby cries in practice.
Though the results were proven efficient in detecting the
cry but identifying the reason behind it remains as a future
scope for the existing problem. Successful cry detection
methods failed to explain or emphasize on the reason why the
baby was crying. To address this problem, we intend to
propose a solution that captures the baby’s cry in audio form
and converting it into spectrogram by performing Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT). This input is fed to train the CNN model to
obtain the reason why the baby is crying. 7 reasons of cry
types are predicted namely: Sleep, Hunger, Scared, lonely,
temperature, burp, and Discomfort. After training the model,
we intend to provide an efficient user interface to help the

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 International Journal of Computer Science Trends and Technology (IJCST) – Volume 10 Issue 3, May-Jun 2022
parents understand the reason for their child cry effectively by
building a mobile application.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
Chunyan Ji et al. [3] reviewed various research on baby cry
analysis and their classifications. Data acquisition process was
followed throughout the literature to understand the workflow
of the methodologies. Typical differences were projected
through images that depict the audio signals of adults and
infants which led to the stage of feature extraction. Various
frequency domains like MFCC, LPCC, etc were taken into
consideration. Their study indicated that infant cries are
rhythmic and cyclic due to natural interruptions in breath.
Current work focused on creating a baby cry dataset of 30,000
audio files with about 50 hours of length, to eliminate the
limitations of data inconsistency and false predictions.
Yizhar Lavner et al. [4] proposed two machine learning
algorithms to automatically determine baby cry. First, MFCC
and pitch were extracted from the features to train a low-
frequency logistic regression classifier. Second, is a CNN
trained through audio recordings. A database consisting of
baby audio ranging from 0-6 months was considered for
performance evaluation. Among these two CNN classifiers
yields better results by providing 12.0% of false positive rate
for 90% detection rate of the model. Lina Abou-Abbas et al.
[5] proposed a framework in cry-based diagnostic system that
can automatically segment baby cry sounds. This algorithm
was used to extract 2 cry components like audible expiration
and inspiration from the audio signals. This paper focuses on
providing an approach that can determine the start and end
points of the EXP and INSV components of a cry signal.
Ashwini.k et al. [6] combined both machine learning and
deep learning techniques to obtain better results for
classification. Baby cries are classified as pain, hunger, and
sleepiness. The data is collected in the form of audio signals
and is transformed into spectrogram using Short Time Fourier
Transform (STFT) technique. Later using this spectrogram as
input a deep neural network is trained and the obtained
features are passed into the support vector classifier. Overall,
the system projected an accuracy of 89.89%. Misba Anjum et
al. [7] proposed Intelligent Cry Monitoring and Cry Detection
System (ICMCDS) which will notify the patents who mostly
put their infants in the day care centres or baby care centres.
This notification system is done via SMS messaging to the
parents whenever the machine detects a cry acoustic signal of
the infant. The model uses Wi-Fi system to enable the audio
sensors of the system to detect the baby’s cry and inform their
parents. The advantage of this system is low maintenance cost.
Rami Cohen et al. [8] proposed an algorithm that can
automatically detect infant’s cry during physical dangers like
in a situation where parents leave their children in vehicles.
The model is divided into 2 stages where primarily the feature
extraction is done using MFCC and short-time energy
parameters. Later, part is the classification using KNN
algorithm. The performance evaluation of the algorithm is
done by testing on various noises like car horns, engine noise
ISSN: 2347-8578 www.ijcstjournal.org
etc. A voice activity detector was enabled which could
automatically stop the algorithm whenever no external noise is
detected.
Chaithra lakshmi C et al. [9] designed a system that could
detect baby’s cry and show possible reasons for the same. The
dataset with 100 audio files were considered form the Speech
Technology Course in KTH (Royal Institute of Technology
Sweden). Feature extraction was performed using MFCC and
the algorithm was trained using KNN. Finally, the accuracy of
this algorithm was obtained as 71.42%. R Cohen et al. [10]
evaluated various Convolutional Network modes in
comparison with traditional machine learning methods like
logistic regression and support vector machines. Similarly,
also analysed the feed forward networks in comparison to
recurrent neural networks. The system showed higher
performance for CNN architecture specialized with non-
symmetric kernels.
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
In this paper, we intend to propose a system that is capable
of predicting the reason why a baby or infant is crying. The
below architecture diagram focuses on the components that
are responsible to predict the accurate reason for the baby’s
cry. This system can help parents to automatically understand
the reason and take necessary actions for the same. Unlike
traditional methods of presenting cry detection methods alone,
we intend to monitor various baby cry patterns and present a
visual interface to the parents through a mobile application
that can notify them time to time by predicting the reasons for
baby’s cry.
Fig. 1 System Architecture
A. Audio Pre-Processing
Whenever a baby cries, the audio signals are captured as
input using the interface of the mobile application. The audio
is successfully stored in the form of uncompressed .wav file
for easy algorithmic analysis. Background noise like opening
and closing of doors in domestic environment, coughing,
choking, talking, sounds made by pets etc are some of them
which can cause loss of accuracy while predicting the reasons.
Hence, any background noise present in the audio is cleaned
and audio splitting is performed using Python libraries. Later,
a spectogram is generated by using LibROSA (a python
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 International Journal of Computer Science Trends and Technology (IJCST) – Volume 10 Issue 3, May-Jun 2022

library used for audio analysis). Since fundamental frequency

is high for babies than adults the generated spectrogram
showed high frequency variations for captured audio files.
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a method used to pre-
process the signal for audio analysis. After the evolution of
computational algorithms, FFT gains higher importance as it
has the capability to present audio signals in sinusoidal wave
patterns. To perform this algorithm efficiently only a single
sided spectrum is considered, and no imaginary parts must be
present ensuring the absolute value of the signal is captured.

B. Model Training
Before training the model there are certain inputs to be fed
to it. After the mel-spectogram is generated, it is converted
into MFCC (Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients). The
obtained outputs are converted as logs (into natural
logarithmic scale) to project the Mel Representation of the Fig. 2 Graph representing accuracy per epoch
audio. By using Machine Learning techniques, the Automatic
Speech Recognition has become easier by using the libROSA Similarly, the loss value is also plotted to obtain the
python library which can generate MFCCs according to the relationship between the epochs and loss function.
current problem. Now, these MFCC are fed as input to the
CNN model.
Using the MFCC as input and the model is trained using the
Convolutional Neural Networks. A sequential CNN model is
chosen with 1 Dimensional network and ReLu activation
function is used for 2 convolutional layers. The accuracy of
86.4% is shown for the trained model. This pre-trained model
is used to predict the reason for the baby’s cry.

C. Reason Prediction
After the model is trained, detection of baby’s cry is
confirmed. Later, to predict various reasons on why the baby
is crying is the main aim of this paper. A Random Forest
Classifier is used to understand various vocal patterns of the
cry and different outputs are generated according to pre-
trained model. The outputs generated by this classifier are 7
Fig. 3 Graph representing loss value per epoch
types i.e., the model predicts 7 reasons for baby’s cry namely:
hunger, sleep, scared, temperature, burp, lonely and In order to maintain log of performance for the model and
discomfort. to observe false prediction of reason for baby cry. We
To make it easy for the user to understand how the model tabulated the values representing the results obtained by the
works, a mobile application is built using Flutter Framework model in the predicted reason column.
that can input baby’s cry as audio and present the output in
TABLE I
the form of any one of the aforementioned reasons to the ACTUAL VS PREDICTED RESULTS
parents.
Actual Reason Predicted Reason
IV. EXPERIMENT AND RESULT Scared Scared

In this paper, we built a system that is capable of capturing Lonely Lonely

baby’s cry and predicting the reason for the same. The below
Temperature Discomfort
graph is the plot obtained for the epochs vs accuracy.
Hunger Hunger

Burp Burp

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 International Journal of Computer Science Trends and Technology (IJCST) – Volume 10 Issue 3, May-Jun 2022
Sleep Discomfort
Temperature Sleep
Discomfort Discomfort
Scared Scared
Lonely Hungry
Sleep Sleep
To make the system easily accessible for the users, we built
a mobile application using Flutter Framework. The below
figure represents the screen which allows the user to interact
with the system.
Fig. 4 Screenshot of Mobile Application
After tapping the button, the baby’s cry gets recorded and
the system accurately predicts the reason why the baby is
crying.
V. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE
Due to the advent of technology, there is a vast amount of
development in the infant cry detection systems. Though these
systems are capable of accurately detection when the baby is
crying, for e.g., when parents are busy, presence of external
noises, child left alone in vehicles etc, they fail to provide a
solution why the baby is crying. This problem often leads to
confusion and irritation to the parents, who are unaware of the
reason for baby’s cry. In this paper, our system presents a
novel approach to predict the reason why the baby is crying.
To understand this, we record the baby’s audio, perform audio
splitting, and convert into MFCC using python libraries. This
ISSN: 2347-8578 www.ijcstjournal.org
input is fed into the CNN model which acquired an accuracy
of 86.4% with a loss value of 41%. Finally, we used the
Random Forest Classifier in order to predict various reasons
for baby’s cry. The classifier provides 7 different outputs
namely: hunger, sleep, scared, temperature, burp, lonely and
discomfort. Our system is capable of presenting a visual
interface to the user to help them record their infant’s cry in
real time and get the accurate reason for their cry. Currently,
the system can only alert or alarm the parent with a proper
reason. Unless recorded the system cannot automatically
detect baby’s cry in domestic environment. Providing a
solution to the aforementioned problem by incorporating a
message/SMS alert system to the parent while at work is a
future scope of this paper.
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