Enhancing Speech Articulation Analysis Using A Geometric Transformation of the X-ray Microbeam Dataset

Ahmed Adel Attia, Mark Tiede, Carol Y. Espy-Wilson

Abstract: Accurate analysis of speech articulation is crucial for speech analysis. However, X-Y coordinates of articulators strongly depend on the anatomy of the speakers and variability of pellet placements, and existing methods for mapping anatomical landmarks in the X-ray Microbeam Dataset (XRMB) fail to capture the entire anatomy of the vocal tract. In this paper, we propose a new geometric transformation that improves the accuracy of these measurements. Our transformation maps anatomical landmarks' X-Y coordinates along the midsagittal plane onto six relative measures: Lip Aperture (LA), Lip Protrusion (LP), Tongue Body Constriction Location (TBCL), Degree (TBCD), Tongue Tip Constriction Location (TTCL), and Degree (TTCD). Our novel contribution is the extension of the palate trace towards the inferred anterior pharyngeal line, which improves measurements of tongue body constriction.