Articulatory Measuring System Using Magnetometer Sensors The Number of Measuring Points and Sensor Arrangements

Abstract

This paper introduces a useful articulatory measuring system using magnetometer sensors for monitoring tongue point movements during speech production. The system consists of small permanent magnetic rods which are attached to the tongue surface as pellets, and magnetometer sensors having two amorphous alloy cores. A measuring principle is based on a change in the intensity of the fields related to distances between the magnetic rods and sensors.
On the detection of rods' positions, tilting and lateral movements of the rods on the tongue cause measurement errors and such troublesome movements are serious problems in the magnetic sensing system using similar principle. These errors can be effectively reduced by setting four sensors at each side of the jaw where the sensors detect positions and inclination angles of the rod. Experiments were done on one point of the tongue surface by using this method, and characteristic patterns of the tongue articulatory movements were observed on several test words.
Moreover, experimental results obtained from a newly developed method of detecting positions and inclination angles of two rods are also shown in the paper.