Speech simulation based on MR images of the vocal tract

There have been considerable research efforts in the area of vocal tract modeling, but there is still a very small body of information regarding direct 3-D measurements of the vocal tract shape. The purpose of this study was to acquire, using MRI, an inventory of three-dimensional vocal tract airway shapes that correspond to a particular set of vowels and consonants. The 3-D shapes were analyzed to find the cross-sectional areas along the centerline extending from the glottis to the mouth to produce an "area function". These area functions were then used as input to a computer model of one-dimensional acoustic wave propagation in the vocal tract. The final result was a simulation of the speech waveform radiated from the mouth and closely similar to the speech waveform recorded from the same subject.