Blizzard Challenge 2009

For the Blizzard Challenge 2009, we again plan to release databases in UK English and Mandarin. The results will be presented at a satellite event planned for Interspeech 2009.

Read these first

• Download the Preliminary announcement of the Blizzard Challenge 2009 in PDF format.

• Download the Final announcement and call for participation for the Blizzard Challenge 2009 in PDF format. NOT YET AVAILABLE

• Read and agree to the Blizzard Challenge 2009 Rules before participating.

Data download and license agreements

• You must complete license agreements for the data, which can be found here:
  • UK English database: NOT YET AVAILABLE
  • Mandarin database: NOT YET AVAILABLE

• 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: NOT YET AVAILABLE
  • Mandarin database: NOT YET AVAILABLE

• Questionnaire:
  • Download the questionnaire, complete it, and return it by the deadline given in the Timeline: NOT YET AVAILABLE

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 2009 Databases released?
  ??? ?? 2009 Test sentences released
  ??? ?? 2009 Deadline for submitting synthesized speech 
  ??? ?? 2009 Evaluation system goes live
  ??? ?? 2009 Deadline for returning the participant questionnaire
  ??? ?? 2009 End of Evaluation (2 weeks for statistical analysis)
  ??? ?? 2009 Results distributed to teams (4 weeks for writing paper) 
  ??? ?? 2009 Satellite workshop papers due (3 week paper review period) 
  ??? ?? 2009 Notification of acceptance 
  Sep ?? 2009 Presentation of results at the satellite workshop in the UK
  Sep 6-10 2009 Interspeech 2009, UK.

Workshop

The Blizzard Challenge 2009 workshop is a satellite of Interspeech 2009. All participants are expected to submit a paper describing their entry (even if they cannot attend the workshop in person).

Location and date

Date: ?? September 2008 (all day)

Location: somewhere in the UK (possibly Edinburgh).

Paper instructions

• Use the Interspeech 2009 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

TBA

Papers

The papers will be published on festvox.org

Any questions?

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

Previous challenges

• Blizzard Challenge 2008
• 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