Efforts in vocal tract modeling are typically directed at understanding the complex relation between the vocal tract shape and its acoustic filtering characteristics. Work on this problem can be roughly divided into four areas:

1) measurement of the vocal tract shape for a wide range of sounds,

2) development of models that can emulate the tract shapes and generate realistic, natural-sounding output,

3) investigating how subtle changes in tract shape can give rise to dramatic changes in voice quality, and

4) understanding how the acoustic pressures generated in the vocal tract may influence the vibration of the vocal folds and the glottal airflow pulses.

The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of vocal tract modeling by demonstrating how recent developments in each of these four areas contribute to the simulation of speaking and singing.