A Comparison of Two Techniques That Measure Vocal Tract Shape

Abstract

This study compares vocal tract shape, of four vowels for a single speaker estimated via analysis of magnetic resonance images and acoustic reflectometer measurements. The first and second resonances of the vocal tract shapes from the two different methods are compared to the first and second formants obtained from an acoustic analysis of the speech signal. It is demonstrated that speech production is compromised by the mouthpiece used for the acoustic reflectometer, and as such this tool is not useful for studying articulatory phonetics.