A 3d tongue model based on MRI data

A new three-dimensional tongue model has been developed within the KTH 3D vocal tract project using manually extracted tongue contours from MR Images of a reference subject producing 43 artificially sustained Swedish articulations. The six linear parameters jaw height, tongue body, tongue dorsum, tongue tip, tongue advance and tongue width were determined using an ordered linear factor analysis controlled by articulatory measures. 88% of the variation in the midsagittal plane and 78% of the overall sagittal variation was explained by the first five factors of the analysis. The six parameter model is able to reconstruct the modeled articulations in 3D with an overall RMS reconstruction error of 0.13 cm sagittally and 0.12 cm laterally, and it specifically handles lateral differences and the observed asymmetries in tongue shape. Figure 1. Examples of tongue contours in / /: the axial set (top left), the oblique set (top right), the coronal set (bottom left) and the acquisition grid (bottom right). ! " ISCA Archive