text: We present and evaluate an approach for human-in-the-loop specification of shape reconstruction with annotations for basic robot-object interactions. Our method is based on the idea of model annotation: the addition of simple cues to an underlying object model to specify shape and delineate a simple task. The goal is to explore reducing the complexity of CAD-like interfaces so that novice users can quickly recover an object's shape and describe a manipulation task that is then carried out by a robot. The object modeling and interaction annotation capabilities are tested with a user study and compared against results obtained using existing approaches. The approach has been analyzed using a variety of shape comparison, grasping, and manipulation metrics, and tested with the PR2 robot platform, where it was shown to be successful.
  @cite_67: This paper studies the impact of interfaces, allowing nonexpert users to efficiently and intuitively teach a robot to recognize new visual objects. We present challenges that need to be addressed for real-world deployment of robots capable of learning new visual objects in interaction with everyday users. We argue that in addition to robust machine learning and computer vision methods, well-designed interfaces are crucial for learning efficiency. In particular, we argue that interfaces can be key in helping nonexpert users to collect good learning examples and, thus, improve the performance of the overall learning system. Then, we present four alternative human–robot interfaces: Three are based on the use of a mediating artifact (smartphone, wiimote, wiimote and laser), and one is based on natural human gestures (with a Wizard-of-Oz recognition system). These interfaces mainly vary in the kind of feedback provided to the user, allowing him to understand more or less easily what the robot is perceiving and, thus, guide his way of providing training examples differently. We then evaluate the impact of these interfaces, in terms of learning efficiency, usability, and user’s experience, through a real world and large-scale user study. In this experiment, we asked participants to teach a robot 12 different new visual objects in the context of a robotic game. This game happens in a home-like environment and was designed to motivate and engage users in an interaction where using the system was meaningful. We then discuss results that show significant differences among interfaces. In particular, we show that interfaces such as the smartphone interface allows nonexpert users to intuitively provide much better training examples to the robot, which is almost as good as expert users who are trained for this task and are aware of the different visual perception and machine learning issues. We also show that artifact-mediated teaching is significantly more efficient for robot learning, and equally good in terms of usability and user’s experience, than teaching thanks to a gesture-based human-like interaction.
summary: The work by @cite_67 uses a simple protocol that involves input and output surveys, a tutorial, and a challenge section. While they were focused on evaluating different methods of directing robot motion and attention, we used the same protocol structure for our own annotation tests.