A New Algorithm for Vocal Tract Shape Extraction from Singer's Waveforms

This paper presents a new algorithm for extracting vocal tract shape from, speech or singing. Based on acoustic sensitivity functions it removes the ambiguity that conventional methods suffer from. We describe acoustic sensitivity functions and how we extract the necessary formant frequencies from the acoustic waveform. Results are presented for a variety of singers both male and female singing a variety of vowels and notes. The results are good and the system not only has applications in voice training but could also be used for control of games or music synthesis.