On this website you find:
- VocalTractLab: An articulatory speech synthesizer and tool to visualize and explore the mechanisms of speech production with regard to articulation, acoustics, and control.
- Image3D: A tool for the exploration of volumetric magnetic resonance images and tracing of contours in these images.
- GlottalImageExplorer: A free and open-source PC software for the segmentation of the glottis in endoscopic high-speed films of the larynx.
- TargetOptimizer: A free and open-source PC software for the estimation of pitch targets from the f0-contour of spoken utterances.
- Background information about articulatory speech synthesis and the models and methods implemented in VocalTractLab.
We hope that this website and software will facilitate the understanding of the human vocal system and the principles of speech production. VocalTractLab was developed as a research tool by Peter Birkholz and is continually extended due to ongoing research.
What is VocalTractLab ?
VocalTractLab stands for “Vocal Tract Laboratory” and is an interactive multimedial software tool to demonstrate the mechanism of speech production. It is meant to facilitate an intuitive understanding of speech production for students of phonetics and related disciplines.
The current versions of VocalTractLab are free of charge. Only a registration code, which you can request by email, will be necessary to activate the software. VocalTractLab is written for Windows operating systems (XP or higher), but a porting to Linux/Unix is conceivable for the future.
Features and Screenshots of VocalTractLab
This page contains a list of the major features of VocalTractLab and a few screenshots of the program. Note that the features presented here are only a small selection. For a complete description of the functionality refer to the user manual in the download section.
The central element of VocalTractLab is a three-dimensional model of the human vocal tract. This model represents the surfaces of the articulators and the vocal tract walls. An interactive visualization of the model is shown on following screenshot.
