Blizzard Challenge 2017: Difference between revisions

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== Read these first ==
== Read these first ==


* First, please read the [[media: Blizzard2017-CallforParticipation.pdf | Call for Participation in the Blizzard Challenge 2017]] in PDF format.
This year, there are two distinct parts to the Blizzard Challenge. Teams may enter either one, or both. The first part of the challenge follows the standard approach of previous years, and comprises the single hub task (2017-EH1). The second part of the challenge is novel and is designed to be accessible to the wider machine learning community; it comprises two spoke tasks (2017-ES1 and 2017-ES2)
* Then, read and agree to the [[Blizzard Challenge 2017 Rules]] before participating
 
* First, please read the calls for participation:
** [[media: Blizzard2017-CallforParticipation.pdf | Call for Participation in the Blizzard Challenge 2017]]
** [[media: BlizzardMachineLearningChallenge2017-CallforParticipation.pdf‎ | Call for Participation in the Blizzard Machine Learning Challenge 2017]]
* Before participating, please read and agree to the rules for whichever part(s) of the challenge you are interested in
**  [[Blizzard Challenge 2017 Rules]]
**  [[Blizzard Machine Learning Challenge 2017 Rules]]
* You should only register for the challenge if you actually plan to submit an entry to the challenge
* You should only register for the challenge if you actually plan to submit an entry to the challenge


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The speech + text data comes from professional audiobooks produced by [http://www.usborne.com Usborne Publishing].
The speech + text data comes from professional audiobooks produced by [http://www.usborne.com Usborne Publishing].


* About 6.5 hours of British English speech data from a single female talker, which comprises 5 hours of speech already released for the 2016 challenge plus the audio from 6 additional books that were used for test material in 2016.
* 2017-EH1
* Processed versions, such as alignments, are shared via the [[Blizzard Challenge 2016-7 Git Repository]]  
** About 6.5 hours of British English speech data from a single female talker, which comprises 5 hours of speech already released for the 2016 challenge plus the audio from 6 additional books that were used for test material in 2016.
* Download links can be found via http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/blizzard/2017/usborne_blizzard2017
** Processed versions, such as alignments, are shared via the [[Blizzard Challenge 2016-7 Git Repository]]  
** Download links can be found via http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/blizzard/2017/usborne_blizzard2017
* 2017-ES1 and 2017-ES2
** About 5 hours of British English speech data (waveforms) from a single female talker, as used in the 2016 challenge, along with linguistic features and speech features.


=== Development tools ===
=== Development tools ===
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The timeline shown on this web page is the official 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!
The timeline shown on this web page is the official 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!


   Dec  8    2016  -  database released
   Dec  8    2016  -  2017-EH1 database released
  Jan  ?    2016  -  2017-ES1 and 2017-ES2 database released
   Mar      2017  -  test sentences released to participants
   Mar      2017  -  test sentences released to participants
   Apr      2017  -  participants submit synthetic speech and questionnaire (by midnight UTC)
   Apr      2017  -  participants submit synthetic speech and questionnaire (by midnight UTC)
   Apr      2017  -  evaluation systems go live
   Apr      2017  -  evaluation systems go live
   Jun      2017  -  end of evaluation period
   Jun      2017  -  end of evaluation period
   Jul  3   2017  -  release of results  
   Jun 15   2017  -  release of results  
   Jul 17   2017  -  deadline to submit workshop papers
   Jun 29   2017  -  deadline to submit workshop papers (for either workshop)
   Jul 31    2017  -  notification of acceptance
   Jul 31    2017  -  notification of acceptance
   Aug 20-24 2017  -  [http://www.interspeech2017.org Interspeech 2017, Stockholm, Sweden]
   Aug 20-24 2017  -  [http://www.interspeech2017.org Interspeech 2017, Stockholm, Sweden]
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== Workshop ==
== Workshop ==


Information on the workshop can be found here: [[Blizzard Challenge 2017 Workshop]]
Information on the two workshops can be found here:
* [[Blizzard Challenge 2017 Workshop]]
* [[Blizzard Machine Learning Challenge 2017 Workshop]]


== Any questions? ==
== Any questions? ==

Revision as of 11:14, 24 January 2017

Read these first

This year, there are two distinct parts to the Blizzard Challenge. Teams may enter either one, or both. The first part of the challenge follows the standard approach of previous years, and comprises the single hub task (2017-EH1). The second part of the challenge is novel and is designed to be accessible to the wider machine learning community; it comprises two spoke tasks (2017-ES1 and 2017-ES2)

Registration

Register by emailing blizzard@festvox.org. We need to know your team name, the name of the main contact person, your affiliation, and contact details including email address, postal address and phone number.

Data download

The speech + text data comes from professional audiobooks produced by Usborne Publishing.

  • 2017-EH1
  • 2017-ES1 and 2017-ES2
    • About 5 hours of British English speech data (waveforms) from a single female talker, as used in the 2016 challenge, along with linguistic features and speech features.

Development tools

Questionnaire

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

Timeline

The timeline shown on this web page is the official 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!

  Dec  8    2016  -  2017-EH1 database released
  Jan  ?    2016  -  2017-ES1 and 2017-ES2 database released
  Mar       2017  -  test sentences released to participants
  Apr       2017  -  participants submit synthetic speech and questionnaire (by midnight UTC)
  Apr       2017  -  evaluation systems go live
  Jun       2017  -  end of evaluation period
  Jun 15    2017  -  release of results 
  Jun 29    2017  -  deadline to submit workshop papers (for either workshop)
  Jul 31    2017  -  notification of acceptance
  Aug 20-24 2017  -  Interspeech 2017, Stockholm, Sweden
  Aug 25    2017  -  Blizzard Challenge workshop, Stockholm (date and location provisional)
  Aug 28-   2017  -  EUSIPCO 2017, Kos, Greece

Workshop

Information on the two workshops can be found here:

Any questions?

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

Previous challenges