THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL MODELS OF THE HUMAN VOCAL TRACT FOR EDUCATION IN ACOUSTICS IN THE DIGITAL ERA

摘要

Although this is commonly seen as the digital era in acoustics, it is still important to incorporate analog systems into education. Specifically, it is our contention that people learn the basic concepts in acoustics better when they have access to physical models, not only computer simulations. Formerly, we proposed mechanical vocal tract models for education in speech science. In this study, we further developed the mechanical models and compared the characteristics of two types of models: plate and cylinder. Several acrylic plates with holes formed an acoustic tube in the former, whereas hollowing out a cylinder created an acoustic resonator in the latter. When their configurations are the same, the two models produce nearly the same output in the lower formant frequencies, except that the two had different formant bandwidths. In the higher frequencies both the formant frequencies and bandwidths were different. We concluded the plate type is also useful as the cylinder type.