A model of facial biomechanics for speech production

Modeling the peripheral speech motor system can advance the understanding o f speech motor control and audiovisual speech perception. A 3-D physical mo del of the human face is presented. The model represents the soft tissue bi omechanics with a multilayer deformable mesh. The mesh is controlled by a s et of modeled facial muscles which uses a standard Hill-type representation of muscle dynamics. In a test of the model, recorded intramuscular electro myography (EMG) was used to activate the modeled muscles and the kinematics of the mesh was compared with 3-D kinematics recorded with OPTOTRAK. Overa ll, there was a good match between the recorded data and the model's moveme nts. Animations of the model are provided as MPEG movies. (C) 1999 Acoustic al Society of America. [S0001-4966(49)02810-6].