Characterization of the radiation of the human voice: from vocal tract to far field – RAYOVOX

Human communication relies primarily on acoustic propagation and radiation to achieve the transmission of information. The radiation of waves at the lips remains a poorly understood phenomenon, although it affects a large number of everyday situations. This project proposes the development of an multimodal instrumentation for the study of the radiation of the voice at different operating scales: 3D directivity, nearfield structures and resonances within the vocal tract. The proposed device must operate in situ and in operando, on unique vocal productions, without assumption of repeatability or stationarity. The project aims to combine material realization and experiments with innovative theoretical and numerical concepts such as compressed sensing, radiation modes and advanced time-frequency analysis, to ensure reasonable complexity while seeking performances comparable to the perceptual human capabilities. The fallout concerns phonetics, virtual reality, telecoms.