A look at NIST'S benchmark ASR tests: past, present, and future

This paper discusses the role that the NIST Speech Group has played by coordinating and implementing objective benchmark tests in the automatic speech recognition research community. From 1987, when the first tests were implemented, to the present time, at which the rich transcription concept has been developed, the tests have served to document the state-of-the art. Testing has involved a number of different, but complementary, domains. These test results document the progress of the technology - ever-lower WER with continued attention to the task domain of the era, and several changes of focus to address ever-more challenging tasks.