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Ananathakrishnan, G.; Eklund, R.; Peters, G.; Mabiza, E.
An acoustic analysis of lion roars. II: Vocal tract characteristics
2011 Conference Proceeding
This paper makes the first attempt to perform an acoustic-to-articulatory inversion of a lion (Panthera leo) roar. The main problems that one encounters in attempting this, is the fact that little is known about the dimensions of the vocal tract, other than a general range of vocal tract lengths. Precious little is also known about the articulation strategies that are adopted by the lion while roaring. The approach used here is to iterate between possible values of vocal tract lengths and vocal tract configurations. Since there seems to be a distinct articulatory changes during the process of a roar, we find a smooth path that minimizes the error function between a recorded roar and the simulated roar using a variable length articulatory model.
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