Optimal estimation of vocal tract area functions from speech signal constrained by X-ray microbeam data

The authors describe a modified Mermelstein articulatory model and present an analytical description of the configuration of the vocal tract model as well as the relationship between the articulators. Based on this model the articulatory parameters can be estimated directly from the speech signal by solving a constrained optimization problem. An adaptive optimization technique is used to find the values of the articulatory parameters of a modified Mermelstein articulatory model, that minimize the difference between model spectra and measured speech spectra.<>