Acoustic of Vocal Tract Shapes for Liquids

描述（由申请人提供）：有重大个人 不同的人产生他们的语言的音素的方式。非常 声道结构的不同但系统的变化可能产生 本族语使用者认为完全等同的声学配置文件。的 发音复杂的美式英语液体/r/和/l/，特别是， 显示了几种不同类型舌构造。值得注意的是，这些 音素对于儿童和非母语者来说是最麻烦的， 但是目前的声道声学模型没有考虑到个体 在生物反馈言语治疗中可能有用的方式的变化。为 例如，治疗师目前无法“阅读”光谱信息， 是声道中的几处收缩导致了失真的/r/。 此外，通过超声或腭造影术的发音反馈仅示出了一个 声带的一部分以前的声学模型受到缺乏 三维数据。使用MRI，我们建议获得多说话者数据库 声道的体积和形状。这些体积数据将用于开发 声道中说话人间差异的综合声学模型 配置. 我们的目标是根据声学特性对声道形状进行分类 生成/r/或/1/的策略。 我们还将采集一部分 舌头的纵向轮廓在同一组扬声器上。然后我们将 测试超声曲线部分约束分类的能力 全长MM中矢状舌轮廓形状与先前定义的 配置类型。这些数据将有助于我们了解声道 语音中的声学和发音变化。它们可以用来改善 语音识别技术和发音和 声生物反馈治疗技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There are significant individual differences in the way people produce the phonemes of their language. Very different but systematic variations in vocal tract configuration may produce acoustic profiles that native speakers accept as categorically equivalent. The articulatorily complex American English liquids /r/ and /l/, in particular, show several distinct types of tongue configuration. Significantly, these phonemes are among the most troublesome for children and non-native speakers, but current models of vocal tract acoustics do not account for individual variations in ways that might be useful in biofeedback speech therapy. For instance, therapists cannot currently "read" spectral information to discover which of several constrictions in the vocal tract is causing a distorted /r/. Further, articulatory feedback via ultrasound or palatography shows only a portion of the vocal tract. Previous acoustic models were limited by the lack of 3-dimensional data. Using MRI, we propose to acquire a multispeaker database of vocal tract volume and shape. These volumetric data will be used to develop comprehensive acoustic models of interspeaker differences in vocal tract configuration. Our goal is to categorize vocal tract shapes in terms of acoustic strategies for producing /r/ or /1/. We will also acquire ultrasound data for a portion of the longitudinal profile of the tongue on the same set of speakers. We will then test the ability of ultrasound curve portions to constrain categorization of full-length MM midsagittal tongue profile shapes into previously defined configuration types. These data will aid our understanding of vocal tract acoustics and articulatory variation in speech. They may be used to improve speech recognition technologies and the implementation of articulatory and acoustic biofeedback therapy techniques.