Experimental investigation of the trachea oscillation and its role in the pitch production

Several experiments have been performed to investigate the mechanical vibrations associated with trachea and larynx when Italian vowels are emitted. The mechanical measurements have been made by using two laser Doppler vibrometers (based on the well-known not-invasive optical measurement technique) coupled with the acoustic field measured by high-quality certified microphones. The recorded signals are analyzed by using well-established methods in time and frequency domains. The signals of the mechanical vibrations along the trachea and the larynx are compared with those of the acoustic ones. Focusing the attention of the signals' onsets, we can observe an upward propagation of the mechanical vibrations for which it is possible to estimate a delay between the traces. We observe that the mechanical oscillations at the trachea start before the larynx and acoustic oscillations. Moreover these tracheal oscillations are self-oscillations in time and are associated with the pitch production, indicating a further hydrodynamic instability at trachea. This leads to new insights in the mechanism controlling the pitch in the speech.