Speech is the most important biosignal humans can produce and perceive. It is the most common means of human-human communication, and therefore research and development in speech and language are not only paramount for understanding humans, but also to facilitate human-machine interaction. Still, not all characteristics of speech are fully understood, and even fewer are used for developing successful speech and language processing applications. Speech can exploit its full potential only if we consider the characteristics which are beyond the traditional (and still important) linguistic content. These characteristics include other biosignals that are directly accessible to human perception, such as muscle and brain activity, as well as articulatory gestures.

INTERSPEECH 2015 will therefore be organized around the topic Speech beyond Speech: Towards a Better Understanding of the Most Important Biosignal. Our conviction is that spoken language processing can make a substantial leap if it accounts for the full information available in the speech signal. By opening our prestigious conference to researchers in other biosignal communities, we expect that substantial advances can be made by discussing ideas and approaches across discipline and community boundaries.