Determination of Vocal-Tract Shape from Impulse Response at the Lips

Abstract

A method is described for determining the shape of the vocal tract from a measurement of the acoustic impulse response at the lips. Under the assumptions that the wave motion is planar and that the losses are negligible, the method gives the area function uniquely. It is further shown that a one-point measurement cannot provide any information about losses. A preliminary experiment is described which verifies the feasibility of the method.