Estimating vocal tract shapes from x-ray microbeam data
Peter Ladefoged, Mona Lindau-Webb · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1987
X-ray microbeam techniques provide data on a few points on the tongue. The possibility of an algorithm that will turn these data into a full specification of the whole tongue shape is tested. A weakness of the system is that it is difficult to place pellets on the posterior half of the tongue. The first goal is thus to investigate what is the minimum number of pellets necessary to predict the shape of the anterior part of the tongue. Data were recorded from seven points, four of which were on the front of the tongue, approximately 15 mm apart. The subject produced short utterances illustrating English vowels. This procedure was then repeated with the four tongue pellets moved approximately 5 mm forward. Image scans of sustained English vowels in which the subject had a chain on the tongue midline consisting of 17 pellets 5 mm apart were also recorded. The results allowed determination of the extent to which tongue shapes can be determined from x-ray microbeam pellets. [Work supported by NIH.]