title: Improved vocal tract reconstruction and modeling using an image super-resolution technique.
abstract: Magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used in speech production research. Often only one image stack (sagittal, axial, or coronal) is used for vocal tract modeling. As a result, complementary information from other available stacks is not utilized. To overcome this, a recently developed super-resolution technique was applied to integrate three orthogonal low-resolution stacks into one isotropic volume. The results on vowels show that the super-resolution volume produces better vocal tract visualization than any of the low-resolution stacks. Its derived area functions generally produce formant predictions closer to the ground truth, particularly for those formants sensitive to area perturbations at constrictions.
authors.affiliation: Speech Communication Laboratory, Institute of Systems Research and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. zxinhui@umd.edu
authors.forename: Xinhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jonghye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Jerry L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Prince
authors.forename: Carol Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Espy-Wilson
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016477:Artifacts; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004825:Epiglottis / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D007830:Larynx / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D008046:Lip / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D010614:Pharynx / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D010699:Phonation / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012984:Software; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics