Speaker and language recognition and characterization: Introduction to the CSL special issue.

Speaker and language recognition and characterization is an exciting area of research that has gained importance in the field of speech science and technology. This special issue features, among other contributions, some of the most remarkable ideas presented and discussed at Odyssey 2016: the Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop, held in Bilbao, Spain, in June 2016. This introduction provides an overview of the selected papers in the context of current challenges.