Learning to solve inverse problems using Wasserstein loss

Abstract: We propose using the Wasserstein loss for training in inverse problems. In particular, we consider a learned primal-dual reconstruction scheme for ill-posed inverse problems using the Wasserstein distance as loss function in the learning. This is motivated by miss-alignments in training data, which when using standard mean squared error loss could severely degrade reconstruction quality. We prove that training with the Wasserstein loss gives a reconstruction operator that correctly compensates for miss-alignments in certain cases, whereas training with the mean squared error gives a smeared reconstruction. Moreover, we demonstrate these effects by training a reconstruction algorithm using both mean squared error and optimal transport loss for a problem in computerized tomography.