A comparison of acoustic and magnetic resonance imaging techniques in the estimation of vocal tract area functions

In the field of articulatory synthesis, the task of acoustic to geometric mapping requires a large number of vocal tract area functions. Magnetic resonance imaging has been used to determine such area functions, but is costly and time consuming. For this reason, an acoustic technique has been investigated to determine vocal tract shapes. In this method, the reflected wave resulting from an impulse directed towards the lips is analysed to obtain the vocal tract area function. Results are reported of experiments performed using both rubber-model and real vocal tracts, and, in the latter case, are compared with those from magnetic resonance imaging