Limiting the reconstruction capability of generative neural network using negative learning

Generative models are widely used for unsupervised learning with various applications, including data compression and signal restoration. Training methods for such systems focus on the generality of the network given limited amount of training data. A less researched type of techniques concerns generation of only a single type of input. This is useful for applications such as constraint handling, noise reduction and anomaly detection. In this paper we present a technique to limit the generative capability of the network using negative learning. The proposed method searches the solution in the gradient direction for the desired input and in the opposite direction for the undesired input. One of the application can be anomaly detection where the undesired inputs are the anomalous data. We demonstrate the features of the algorithm using MNIST handwritten digit dataset and latter apply the technique to a real-world obstacle detection problem. The results clearly show that the proposed learning technique can significantly improve the performance for anomaly detection.