This study attempts to describe a plausible causal mechanism of generating individual vocal characteristics in higher spectra. The lower vocal tract has been suggested to be such a causal region, but a question remains as to how this region modulates vowels’ higher spectra. Based on existing data, this study predicts that resonance of the lower vocal tract modulates higher vowel spectra into a peak-dip-peak pattern. A preliminary acoustic simulation was made to confirm that complexity of lower vocal-tract cavities generates such a pattern with the second peak. This spectral modulation pattern was further examined to see to what extent it contributes to generating static speaker characteristics. To do so, a statistical analysis of male and female F-ratio curves was conducted based on a speech database. In the result, three frequency regions for the peak-dip-peak patterns correspond to three regions in the gender-specific F-ratio curves. Thus, this study suggests that, while the first peak may be the major determinant by the human ears, the whole frequency pattern facilitates speaker recognition by machines.
Cite as: Zhang, L., Honda, K., Wei, J., Adachi, S. (2020) Regional Resonance of the Lower Vocal Tract and its Contribution to Speaker Characteristics. Proc. Interspeech 2020, 1391-1395, doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2020-2024
@inproceedings{zhang20l_interspeech,
author={Lin Zhang and Kiyoshi Honda and Jianguo Wei and Seiji Adachi},
title={{Regional Resonance of the Lower Vocal Tract and its Contribution to Speaker Characteristics}},
year=2020,
booktitle={Proc. Interspeech 2020},
pages={1391--1395},
doi={10.21437/Interspeech.2020-2024}
}