Blizzard Challenge 2016: Difference between revisions

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[[image:Google_logo.JPG||frame|right| Google UK has generously provided financial support to the Blizzard Challenge 2016]]
[[image:Google_logo.JPG||frame|right| Google UK has generously provided financial support to the Blizzard Challenge 2016]]
== This Blizzard Challenge has finished ==
* Please do not try to register for this challenge - you are too late!
* However, the data are still available. We recommend using the 2018 data, which is a superset of the 2017 and 2016 data. Do not email us, but simply go to https://synsig.org/index.php/Blizzard_Challenge#Tools_and_data
* The remainder of this page is left as a record of the Challenge


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


== Registration and license agreement ==
== 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. Please state which datasets you want to download and which tasks you are planning to submit entries to (this is non-binding, but is helpful for our planning).
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.
 
The speech + text data comes from professional audiobooks produced by [http://www.usborne.com Usborne Publishing].
 
At this time, only the pilot data are  available, so you can make a start with that. Complete the license for the pilot data, which can be accessed via http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/blizzard/2015/usborne_blizzard2015


== Data download ==
== Data download ==


* Pilot data from 2015
The speech + text data comes from professional audiobooks produced by [http://www.usborne.com Usborne Publishing].
** about 2 hours of British English speech data in from a single female talker
** A sentence-level alignment between text and speech is provided by [http://www.toshiba.eu/eu/Cambridge-Research-Laboratory/ Toshiba's Cambridge Research Laboratory].
** Download links can be found via http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/blizzard/2015/usborne_blizzard2015


* Full data
* about 5 hours of British English speech data in from a single female talker
** Will be the pilot data, plus additional data from the same speaker.
* A sentence-level alignment between text and speech for some of the data is provided by [http://www.toshiba.eu/eu/Cambridge-Research-Laboratory/ Toshiba's Cambridge Research Laboratory].
** Coming soon...
* Download links can be found via http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/blizzard/2016/usborne_blizzard2016


=== Development tools ===
=== Development tools ===
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=== Questionnaire ===
=== Questionnaire ===


* Download the questionnaire (for the main IL tasks only), complete it, and return it by the deadline given in the Timeline. (Coming later...)
* Download the questionnaire, complete it, and return it by the deadline given in the timeline. http://data.cstr.ed.ac.uk/blizzard2016/system_questionnaire.txt


== Mailing list ==
== Mailing list ==
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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!


   Feb 22    2016  -  databases to be released
   Feb 22    2016  -  database released
   Apr 18    2016  -  test sentences released to participants
   Apr 18    2016  -  test sentences released to participants
   Apr 22   2016  -  participants submit synthetic speech (by midnight UTC)
   Apr 26   2016  -  participants submit synthetic speech and questionnaire (by midnight UTC)
   May      2016  -  evaluation systems go live
   May      2016  -  evaluation systems go live
   Jun      2016  -  end of evaluation period
   Jun      2016  -  end of evaluation period
   Jul      2016  -  release of results  
   Jul      2016  -  release of results  
   Aug  5    2016  -  deadline to submit workshop papers
   Aug  5    2016  -  deadline to submit workshop papers
   Aug 12   2016  -  notification of acceptance
   Aug 15   2016  -  notification of acceptance
   Sep  8-12 2016  -  [http://www.interspeech2016.org Interspeech 2016, San Franscisco, USA]
   Sep  8-12 2016  -  [http://www.interspeech2016.org Interspeech 2016, San Franscisco, USA]
   Sep 13-15 2016  -  SSW9, Sunnyvale, California, USA
   Sep 13-15 2016  -  SSW9, Sunnyvale, California, USA
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== Workshop ==
== Workshop ==


Information on the workshop can be found here: [[Blizzard Challenge 2015 Workshop]]
Information on the workshop can be found here: [[Blizzard Challenge 2016 Workshop]]


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

Latest revision as of 14:10, 5 December 2018

Google UK has generously provided financial support to the Blizzard Challenge 2016

This Blizzard Challenge has finished

  • Please do not try to register for this challenge - you are too late!
  • However, the data are still available. We recommend using the 2018 data, which is a superset of the 2017 and 2016 data. Do not email us, but simply go to https://synsig.org/index.php/Blizzard_Challenge#Tools_and_data
  • The remainder of this page is left as a record of the Challenge


Read these first

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.

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!

  Feb 22    2016  -  database released
  Apr 18    2016  -  test sentences released to participants
  Apr 26    2016  -  participants submit synthetic speech and questionnaire (by midnight UTC)
  May       2016  -  evaluation systems go live
  Jun       2016  -  end of evaluation period
  Jul       2016  -  release of results 
  Aug  5    2016  -  deadline to submit workshop papers
  Aug 15    2016  -  notification of acceptance
  Sep  8-12 2016  -  Interspeech 2016, San Franscisco, USA
  Sep 13-15 2016  -  SSW9, Sunnyvale, California, USA
  Sep 16    2016  -  Blizzard Challenge workshop, somewhere near SSW9

Workshop

Information on the workshop can be found here: Blizzard Challenge 2016 Workshop

Any questions?

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

Previous challenges