The Dialog State Tracking Challenge Series

In spoken dialog systems, dialog state tracking refers to the task of correctly inferring the user's goal at a given turn, given all of the dialog history up to that turn. The Dialog State Tracking Challenge is a research community challenge task that has run for three rounds. The challenge has given rise to a host of new methods for dialog state tracking and also to deeper understanding about the problem itself, including methods for evaluation. In the core of a conversation system is a key component called a dialog state tracker, which estimates the user's goal given all of the dialog history so far. For example, in a tourist information system, the dialog state might indicate the type of business the user is searching for (pub, restaurant, coffee shop), the desired price range, and the type of food served.