Blizzard Challenge 2008

This Blizzard Challenge has finished

• Please do not try to register for this challenge - you are too late!
• The data are no longer available
• The remainder of this page is left as a record of the Challenge

For the Blizzard Challenge 2008, we plan to release two databases: UK English and Mandarin. The results will be presented at a satellite event planned for Interspeech 2008.

Read these first

• Download the Announcement of the Blizzard Challenge 2008 in PDF format.

• Read and agree to the Blizzard Challenge 2008 Rules before participating.

Data download and license agreements

• You must complete license agreements for the data, which can be found here:
  • UK English database: http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/roger_blizzard2008/
  • Mandarin database: http://www.speakit.cn/corpus/license.html

• Data download: You will be sent a username and password to download the data. These are the same for all downloads, and will be activated for each download after you have returned the corresponding license agreement.
  • UK English database: http://data.cstr.ed.ac.uk/blizzard2008/
  • Mandarin database: http://www.speakit.cn/corpus/download/

• Questionnaire:
  • Download the questionnaire, complete it, and return it by the deadline given in the Timeline: http://data.cstr.ed.ac.uk/blizzard2008/system_questionnaire.txt

Mailing list

There is a mailing list for discussion and announcements for the challenge:

 blizzard-discuss@festvox.org

Participants must join the list by sending a message to majordomo@festvox.org with the following line in the body of the message

 subscribe blizzard-discuss

Once you a member you will be able to mail messages to blizzard-discuss@festvox.org

Timeline

The timeline shown on this web page is the offical one and supercedes those shown in announcements - it is subject to change, but we will try to follow it as closely as possible. Note that we will not consider any requests from participants to change the synthetic speech submission date or the paper submission date!

  Feb 18 2008 Earliest database release date (7 weeks for voice building) 
  Apr 11 2008 Test sentences released (1 week for synthesis) 
  Apr 18 2008 Deadline for submitting synthesized speech 
  May  5 2008 Evaluation system goes live
  May 30 2008 Deadline for returning the participant questionnaire
  Jun 16 2008 End of Evaluation (2 weeks for statistical analysis)
  Jun 27 2008 Results distributed to teams (4 weeks for writing paper) 
  Jul 25 2008 Satellite workshop papers due (3 week paper review period) 
  Aug 15 2008 Notification of acceptance 
  Sep 21 2008 Presentation of results at the satellite workshop in Brisbane
              (date/location now confirmed, more details will be available later) 
  Sep 22-26 2008 Interspeech 2008 in Brisbane

Workshop

The Blizzard Challenge 2008 workshop is a satellite of Interspeech 2008. All participants are expected to submit a paper describing their entry (even if they cannot attend the workshop in person).

Location and date

Date: Sunday 21st September 2008 (all day)

Location: Room 326 in the Parnell Building on the St Lucia Campus of the University of Queensland, which is reasonably close to the Interspeech venue in Brisbane, Australia (i.e., you can stay in the same hotel as for the main conference). Refreshments and lunch will be available from Wordsmiths café

Paper instructions

• Use the Interspeech 2008 authors' kit, but your paper should be up to SIX pages in length
• Remember that Blizzard is a scientific investigation - we are all trying to understand why some techniques work better than others.
• With this in mind, please write a detailed, technical paper aimed at a specialist audience. Focus on analysis and evaluation. Try to explain WHY your system performed the way it did, and what makes it different from other systems. Explain why your system is designed in a particular way. For example, report internal evaluations you have done to select certain methods.
• Submit your paper by email to blizzard@festvox.org by the due date (see Timeline)

Programme

17 teams attending: ATR, CSTR/CEREPROC, CMU, DFKI, HTS, IBM, IIIT, INESC, I2R, MXAC, NOKIA, STELLENBOSCH, TOSHIBA, TUD, UPC, USTC, VUB

2 teams unable to attend: AHOLAB, CASIA

All timings below are approximate.

• 09.00-10.00 Simon King on behalf of the organisers
  • Welcome, introduction, overview of Blizzard
  • Summary of results
• 10.00-12.30 9 System presentations, each 15 minutes MAX, including questions; short tea break at ~11.00
• 12.30-14.00 Lunch
• 14.00-16.15 8 System presentations, each 15 minutes MAX, including questions; short tea break at ~15.30
• 16.15 - 17.00
  • Objective quality measures (Tiago H. Falk, Sebastian Möller & Benjamín Weiss)
  • Closing & general discussion of Blizzard 2008 (Simon King)
  • Discussion of Blizzard 2009 (Simon King?)
• Informal gathering at the Regatta Hotel for food and drink at participants' own expense. This pub is just a few minutes from campus by ferry.

Papers

The papers are available on festvox.org

Quicktime movie of the summary presentation

Any questions?

• Please contact blizzard@festvox.org if you have any questions

Previous challenges

• Blizzard Challenge 2007
• Blizzard Challenge 2006 papers and results: http://www.festvox.org/blizzard/blizzard2006.html
• Blizzard Challenge 2005 papers and results: http://www.festvox.org/blizzard/blizzard2005.html