ASA 125th Meeting Ottawa 1993 May

5aSP6. Measuring articulatory movements with an electro-magnetic midsagittal articulometer (EMMA) system.

J. S. Perkell

M. A. Svirsky

M. L. Matthies

J. Manzella

Rm. 36-511, Speech Commun. Group, Res. Lab. of Electron., MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139

It is difficult to find experimental evidence for underlying mechanisms in speech production, largely because speech acoustics and kinematics are very variable, within and across speakers. Thus one approach to exploring speech production is with statistical analyses of large quantities of articulatory and acoustic data, gathered in a systematic and efficient fashion. If used carefully, EMMA systems can transduce large amounts of accurate movement data simultaneously from midsagittal points on the maxilla, mandible, tongue, lips, and possibly the velum. The use of such a system in combination with appropriate analysis techniques can make it possible to investigate speech kinematics while taking variability into account. This presentation will cover a number of aspects of the use of an EMMA system including: the theory of operation, subject safety, calibrations, preparing for and running an experiment, signal processing, data extraction, checking and using the data, and limitations of this kind of data. [Work supported by N.I.D.C.D.]