TEN Turn Detection

Turn detection for full-duplex dialogue communication

Introduction

TEN Turn Detection is an advanced intelligent turn detection model designed specifically for natural and dynamic communication between humans and AI agents. This technology addresses one of the most challenging aspects of human-AI conversation: detecting natural turn-taking cues and enabling contextually-aware interruptions. TEN incorporates deep semantic understanding of conversation context and linguistic patterns to create more natural dialogue with AI.

TEN Turn Detection SVG Diagram

TEN Turn Detection categorizes user's text into three key states:

finished: A finished utterance where the user has expressed a complete thought and expects a response. Example: "Hey there I was wondering can you help me with my order"

wait: An wait utterance where the user has explicitly instructed the AI not to speak. Example: "Shut up"

unfinished: A clearly unfinished utterance where the user has momentarily paused but intends to continue speaking. Example: "Hello I have a question about"

These three classification states allow the TEN system to create natural conversation dynamics by intelligently managing turn-taking, reducing awkward interruptions while maintaining conversation flow.

TEN Turn Detection utilizes a multi-layered approach based on the transformer-based language model(Qwen2.5-7BοΌ‰ for semantic analysis.

Key Features

  • Context-Aware Turn Management TEN Turn Detection analyzes linguistic patterns and semantic context to accurately identify turn completion points. This capability enables intelligent interruption handling, allowing the system to determine when interruptions are contextually appropriate while maintaining natural conversation flow across various dialogue scenarios.

  • Multilingual Turn Detection Support TEN Turn Detection provides comprehensive support for both English and Chinese languages. It is engineered to accurately identify turn-taking cues and completion signals across multilingual conversations.

  • Superior Performance Compared with multiple open-source solutions, TEN achieves superior performance across all metrics on our publicly available test dataset.

Prepared Dataset

We have open-sourced the TEN-Turn-Detection TestSet, a bilingual (Chinese and English) collection of conversational inputs specifically designed to evaluate turn detection capabilities in AI dialogue systems. The dataset consists of three distinct components:

wait.txt: Contains expressions requesting conversation pauses or termination

unfinished.txt: Features incomplete dialogue inputs with truncated utterances

finished.txt: Provides complete conversational inputs across multiple domains

Detection Performance

We conducted comprehensive evaluations comparing several open-source models for turn detection using our test dataset:

LANGUAGE MODEL FINISHED
ACCURACY
UNFINISHED
ACCURACY
WAIT
ACCURACY
English Model A 59.74% 86.46% N/A
English Model B 71.61% 96.88% N/A
English TEN Turn Detection 90.64% 98.44% 91%
LANGUAGE MODEL FINISHED
ACCURACY
UNFINISHED
ACCURACY
WAIT
ACCURACY
Chinese Model B 74.63% 88.89% N/A
Chinese TEN Turn Detection 98.90% 92.74% 92%

Notes:

  1. Model A doesn't support Chinese language processing
  2. Neither Model A nor Model B support the "WAIT" state detection

Quick Start

TEN Turn Detection is also available on github TEN-framework/ten-turn-detection

Installation

pip install "transformers>=4.45.0"
pip install "torch>=2.0.0"

Model Weights

The TEN Turn Detection model is available on HuggingFace

Inference

from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM
import torch

# Load model and tokenizer
model_id = 'TEN-framework/TEN_Turn_Detection'
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(model_id, trust_remote_code=True, torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16)
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_id, trust_remote_code=True)

# Move model to GPU
model = model.cuda()
model.eval()

# Function for inference
def analyze_text(text, system_prompt=""):
    inf_messages = [{"role":"system", "content":system_prompt}] + [{"role":"user", "content":text}]
    input_ids = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
        inf_messages, 
        add_generation_prompt=True, 
        return_tensors="pt"
    ).cuda()
    
    with torch.no_grad():
        outputs = model.generate(
            input_ids, 
            max_new_tokens=1, 
            do_sample=True, 
            top_p=0.1, 
            temperature=0.1, 
            pad_token_id=tokenizer.eos_token_id
        )
        
    response = outputs[0][input_ids.shape[-1]:]
    return tokenizer.decode(response, skip_special_tokens=True)

# Example usage
text = "Hello I have a question about"
result = analyze_text(text)
print(f"Input: '{text}'")
print(f"Turn Detection Result: '{result}'")

Citation

If you use TEN Turn Detection in your research or applications, please cite:

@misc{TEN_Turn_Detection,
author = {TEN Team},
title = {TEN Turn Detection: Turn detection for full-duplex dialogue communication 

},
year = {2025},
url = {https://github.com/TEN-framework/ten-turn-detection},
}

License

This project is Apache 2.0 licensed.

Quantization beyond the IMatrix

Testing a new quantization method using rules to bump important layers above what the standard imatrix would use.

I have found that the standard IMatrix does not perform very well at low bit quantiztion and for MOE models. So I am using llama.cpp --tensor-type to bump up selected layers. See Layer bumping with llama.cpp

This does create larger model files but increases precision for a given model size.

Please provide feedback on how you find this method performs


Choosing the Right Model Format

Selecting the correct model format depends on your hardware capabilities and memory constraints.

BF16 (Brain Float 16) – Use if BF16 acceleration is available

  • A 16-bit floating-point format designed for faster computation while retaining good precision.
  • Provides similar dynamic range as FP32 but with lower memory usage.
  • Recommended if your hardware supports BF16 acceleration (check your device's specs).
  • Ideal for high-performance inference with reduced memory footprint compared to FP32.

πŸ“Œ Use BF16 if:
βœ” Your hardware has native BF16 support (e.g., newer GPUs, TPUs).
βœ” You want higher precision while saving memory.
βœ” You plan to requantize the model into another format.

πŸ“Œ Avoid BF16 if:
❌ Your hardware does not support BF16 (it may fall back to FP32 and run slower).
❌ You need compatibility with older devices that lack BF16 optimization.


F16 (Float 16) – More widely supported than BF16

  • A 16-bit floating-point high precision but with less of range of values than BF16.
  • Works on most devices with FP16 acceleration support (including many GPUs and some CPUs).
  • Slightly lower numerical precision than BF16 but generally sufficient for inference.

πŸ“Œ Use F16 if:
βœ” Your hardware supports FP16 but not BF16.
βœ” You need a balance between speed, memory usage, and accuracy.
βœ” You are running on a GPU or another device optimized for FP16 computations.

πŸ“Œ Avoid F16 if:
❌ Your device lacks native FP16 support (it may run slower than expected).
❌ You have memory limitations.


Hybrid Precision Models (e.g., bf16_q8_0, f16_q4_K) – Best of Both Worlds

These formats selectively quantize non-essential layers while keeping key layers in full precision (e.g., attention and output layers).

  • Named like bf16_q8_0 (meaning full-precision BF16 core layers + quantized Q8_0 other layers).
  • Strike a balance between memory efficiency and accuracy, improving over fully quantized models without requiring the full memory of BF16/F16.

πŸ“Œ Use Hybrid Models if:
βœ” You need better accuracy than quant-only models but can’t afford full BF16/F16 everywhere.
βœ” Your device supports mixed-precision inference.
βœ” You want to optimize trade-offs for production-grade models on constrained hardware.

πŸ“Œ Avoid Hybrid Models if:
❌ Your target device doesn’t support mixed or full-precision acceleration.
❌ You are operating under ultra-strict memory limits (in which case use fully quantized formats).


Quantized Models (Q4_K, Q6_K, Q8, etc.) – For CPU & Low-VRAM Inference

Quantization reduces model size and memory usage while maintaining as much accuracy as possible.

  • Lower-bit models (Q4_K) β†’ Best for minimal memory usage, may have lower precision.
  • Higher-bit models (Q6_K, Q8_0) β†’ Better accuracy, requires more memory.

πŸ“Œ Use Quantized Models if:
βœ” You are running inference on a CPU and need an optimized model.
βœ” Your device has low VRAM and cannot load full-precision models.
βœ” You want to reduce memory footprint while keeping reasonable accuracy.

πŸ“Œ Avoid Quantized Models if:
❌ You need maximum accuracy (full-precision models are better for this).
❌ Your hardware has enough VRAM for higher-precision formats (BF16/F16).


Very Low-Bit Quantization (IQ3_XS, IQ3_S, IQ3_M, Q4_K, Q4_0)

These models are optimized for very high memory efficiency, making them ideal for low-power devices or large-scale deployments where memory is a critical constraint.

  • IQ3_XS: Ultra-low-bit quantization (3-bit) with very high memory efficiency.

    • Use case: Best for ultra-low-memory devices where even Q4_K is too large.
    • Trade-off: Lower accuracy compared to higher-bit quantizations.
  • IQ3_S: Small block size for maximum memory efficiency.

    • Use case: Best for low-memory devices where IQ3_XS is too aggressive.
  • IQ3_M: Medium block size for better accuracy than IQ3_S.

    • Use case: Suitable for low-memory devices where IQ3_S is too limiting.
  • Q4_K: 4-bit quantization with block-wise optimization for better accuracy.

    • Use case: Best for low-memory devices where Q6_K is too large.
  • Q4_0: Pure 4-bit quantization, optimized for ARM devices.

    • Use case: Best for ARM-based devices or low-memory environments.

Ultra Low-Bit Quantization (IQ1_S IQ1_M IQ2_S IQ2_M IQ2_XS IQ2_XSS)

  • *Ultra-low-bit quantization (1 2-bit) with extreme memory efficiency.
    • Use case: Best for cases were you have to fit the model into very constrained memory
    • Trade-off: Very Low Accuracy. May not function as expected. Please test fully before using.

Summary Table: Model Format Selection

Model Format Precision Memory Usage Device Requirements Best Use Case
BF16 Very High High BF16-supported GPU/CPU High-speed inference with reduced memory
F16 High High FP16-supported GPU/CPU Inference when BF16 isn’t available
Q4_K Medium-Low Low CPU or Low-VRAM devices Memory-constrained inference
Q6_K Medium Moderate CPU with more memory Better accuracy with quantization
Q8_0 High Moderate GPU/CPU with moderate VRAM Highest accuracy among quantized models
IQ3_XS Low Very Low Ultra-low-memory devices Max memory efficiency, low accuracy
IQ3_S Low Very Low Low-memory devices Slightly more usable than IQ3_XS
IQ3_M Low-Medium Low Low-memory devices Better accuracy than IQ3_S
Q4_0 Low Low ARM-based/embedded devices Llama.cpp automatically optimizes for ARM inference
Ultra Low-Bit (IQ1/2_*) Very Low Extremely Low Tiny edge/embedded devices Fit models in extremely tight memory; low accuracy
Hybrid (e.g., bf16_q8_0) Medium–High Medium Mixed-precision capable hardware Balanced performance and memory, near-FP accuracy in critical layers

πŸš€ If you find these models useful

Help me test my AI-Powered Quantum Network Monitor Assistant with quantum-ready security checks:

πŸ‘‰ Quantum Network Monitor

The full Open Source Code for the Quantum Network Monitor Service available at my github repos ( repos with NetworkMonitor in the name) : Source Code Quantum Network Monitor. You will also find the code I use to quantize the models if you want to do it yourself GGUFModelBuilder

πŸ’¬ How to test:
Choose an AI assistant type:

  • TurboLLM (GPT-4.1-mini)
  • HugLLM (Hugginface Open-source models)
  • TestLLM (Experimental CPU-only)

What I’m Testing

I’m pushing the limits of small open-source models for AI network monitoring, specifically:

  • Function calling against live network services
  • How small can a model go while still handling:
    • Automated Nmap security scans
    • Quantum-readiness checks
    • Network Monitoring tasks

🟑 TestLLM – Current experimental model (llama.cpp on 2 CPU threads on huggingface docker space):

  • βœ… Zero-configuration setup
  • ⏳ 30s load time (slow inference but no API costs) . No token limited as the cost is low.
  • πŸ”§ Help wanted! If you’re into edge-device AI, let’s collaborate!

Other Assistants

🟒 TurboLLM – Uses gpt-4.1-mini :

  • **It performs very well but unfortunatly OpenAI charges per token. For this reason tokens usage is limited.
  • Create custom cmd processors to run .net code on Quantum Network Monitor Agents
  • Real-time network diagnostics and monitoring
  • Security Audits
  • Penetration testing (Nmap/Metasploit)

πŸ”΅ HugLLM – Latest Open-source models:

  • 🌐 Runs on Hugging Face Inference API. Performs pretty well using the lastest models hosted on Novita.

πŸ’‘ Example commands you could test:

  1. "Give me info on my websites SSL certificate"
  2. "Check if my server is using quantum safe encyption for communication"
  3. "Run a comprehensive security audit on my server"
  4. '"Create a cmd processor to .. (what ever you want)" Note you need to install a Quantum Network Monitor Agent to run the .net code from. This is a very flexible and powerful feature. Use with caution!

Final Word

I fund the servers used to create these model files, run the Quantum Network Monitor service, and pay for inference from Novita and OpenAIβ€”all out of my own pocket. All the code behind the model creation and the Quantum Network Monitor project is open source. Feel free to use whatever you find helpful.

If you appreciate the work, please consider buying me a coffee β˜•. Your support helps cover service costs and allows me to raise token limits for everyone.

I'm also open to job opportunities or sponsorship.

Thank you! 😊

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