The Spoken Dialog Challenge

Alan Black and Maxine Eskenazi

SIGDIAL Workshop on Discourse and Dialogue (SIGDIAL 2009)
Queen Mary University of London, September 11-12, 2009

Summary

In the field of speech and language processing the introduction of "Challenges" has helped focus the focus a field, allowing detailed comparisons of systems and techniques, bringing new members into the field, and facilitating advancements in core research. Although the idea of a spoken dialogue challenge has been discussed for some time, this is the first attempt to bring these discussions together and take concrete action. This paper lays out the basic issues and intentions for a new Spoken Dialogue Challenge.