Three-dimensional acoustic field in vocal-tract

Abstract

Recent developments in observation techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging allow us to obtain an accurate description of the vocal-tract shape. It is thus possible to perform analyses of the acoustic characteristics of three-dimensional vocal-tracts at higher frequencies where the assumption of plane wave propagation does not hold. Historical and conventional one-dimensional models of vocal-tracts are briefly described followed by recent knowledge of the acoustic characteristics of three-dimensional vocal-tracts.