# Deep Shells: Unsupervised Shape Correspondence with Optimal Transport

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.15261 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.15261/

## Key facts

- Cited by 74 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 Oct 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 74)

- [NeuroMorph: Unsupervised Shape Interpolation and Correspondence in One Go](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09431/) (2021)
- [LCDNet: Deep Loop Closure Detection and Point Cloud Registration for LiDAR SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.05056/) (2021)
- [A Survey of Non-Rigid 3D Registration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.07858/) (2022)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Robust Spectral Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.14419/) (2023)
- [Shape registration in the time of transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.13679/) (2021)
- [Unsupervised Deep Multi-Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09610/) (2022)
- [Accurate Point Cloud Registration with Robust Optimal Transport](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.00648/) (2021)
- [Deep Orientation-Aware Functional Maps: Tackling Symmetry Issues in Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.13453/) (2022)
- [Learning Multi-resolution Functional Maps with Spectral Attention for Robust Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06373/) (2022)
- [Multiway Non-rigid Point Cloud Registration via Learned Functional Map Synchronization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12878/) (2021)
- [Spatially and Spectrally Consistent Deep Functional Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08871/) (2023)
- [A Unified Framework for Implicit Sinkhorn Differentiation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.06688/) (2022)
- [Spectral Meets Spatial: Harmonising 3D Shape Matching and Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.18920/) (2024)
- [ACID: Action-Conditional Implicit Visual Dynamics for Deformable Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.06856/) (2022)
- [Self-Supervised Learning for Multimodal Non-Rigid 3D Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.10971/) (2023)
- [Understanding and Improving Features Learned in Deep Functional Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.16527/) (2023)
- [A Scalable Combinatorial Solver for Elastic Geometrically Consistent 3D Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.12805/) (2022)
- [NCP: Neural Correspondence Prior for Effective Unsupervised Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05839/) (2023)
- [Hybrid Functional Maps for Crease-Aware Non-Isometric Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03678/) (2023)
- [Tree-Based Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge with Applications to Wasserstein Barycenters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16557/) (2023)
- [Point2SSM: Learning Morphological Variations of Anatomies from Point Cloud](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14486/) (2023)
- [Memory-Scalable and Simplified Functional Map Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.00330/) (2024)
- [Discovering Relationships between Object Categories via Universal Canonical Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09758/) (2021)
- [Implicit field supervision for robust non-rigid shape matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.07694/) (2022)
- [SRFeat: Learning Locally Accurate and Globally Consistent Non-Rigid Shape Correspondence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.07806/) (2022)
- [Non-Rigid Shape Registration via Deep Functional Maps Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04494/) (2023)
- [Integrating Efficient Optimal Transport and Functional Maps For Unsupervised Shape Correspondence Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01781/) (2024)
- [SRIF: Semantic Shape Registration Empowered by Diffusion-based Image Morphing and Flow Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11682/) (2024)
- [GenCorres: Consistent Shape Matching via Coupled Implicit-Explicit Shape Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.10523/) (2023)
- [DiffuMatch: Category-Agnostic Spectral Diffusion Priors for Robust Non-rigid Shape Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.23715/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose a novel unsupervised learning approach to 3D shape correspondence that builds a multiscale matching pipeline into a deep neural network. This approach is based on smooth shells, the current state-of-the-art axiomatic correspondence method, which requires an a priori stochastic search over the space of initial poses. Our goal is to replace this costly preprocessing step by directly learning good initializations from the input surfaces. To that end, we systematically derive a fully differentiable, hierarchical matching pipeline from entropy regularized optimal transport. This allows us to combine it with a local feature extractor based on smooth, truncated spectral convolution filters. Finally, we show that the proposed unsupervised method significantly improves over the state-of-the-art on multiple datasets, even in comparison to the most recent supervised methods. Moreover, we demonstrate compelling generalization results by applying our learned filters to examples that significantly deviate from the training set.