{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7162582495","doi":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","title":"VisualNeedle: Benchmarking Active Visual Search in Information-Dense Scenes","display_name":"VisualNeedle: Benchmarking Active Visual Search in Information-Dense Scenes","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-05-25","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7162582495","doi":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380"},"language":null,"primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"Preprint"},"type":"preprint","indexed_in":["datacite"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"green","oa_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","any_repository_has_fulltext":true},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5137117341","display_name":"Jingru Chen","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Chen, Jingru","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5137133521","display_name":"Yiming Liu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Liu, Yiming","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5137137615","display_name":"Mingtao Chen","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Chen, Mingtao","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5100738031","display_name":"Sijie Chen","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5263-9189"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Chen, Sijie","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5059210126","display_name":"Richeng Xuan","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2582-1839"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Xuan, Richeng","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5137089561","display_name":"Liang Yang","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yang, Liang","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5137093700","display_name":"Zhichao Hu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hu, Zhichao","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5137179535","display_name":"Fanyang Lu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Lu, Fanyang","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":0,"institutions_distinct_count":0,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":null,"has_fulltext":false,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":null,"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":null,"last_page":null},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11714","display_name":"Multimodal Machine Learning Applications","score":0.8307999968528748,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1707","display_name":"Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11714","display_name":"Multimodal Machine Learning Applications","score":0.8307999968528748,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1707","display_name":"Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11307","display_name":"Domain Adaptation and Few-Shot Learning","score":0.053199999034404755,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10775","display_name":"Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis","score":0.021700000390410423,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1707","display_name":"Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/benchmark","display_name":"Benchmark (surveying)","score":0.6690000295639038},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/counterfactual-thinking","display_name":"Counterfactual thinking","score":0.5623000264167786},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/visual-reasoning","display_name":"Visual reasoning","score":0.5540000200271606},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/prior-probability","display_name":"Prior probability","score":0.5160999894142151},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/visual-search","display_name":"Visual search","score":0.5040000081062317},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/perception","display_name":"Perception","score":0.45489999651908875},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/semantics","display_name":"Semantics (computer science)","score":0.4521999955177307},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/benchmarking","display_name":"Benchmarking","score":0.4339999854564667},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/encoder","display_name":"Encoder","score":0.4196999967098236}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.6876000165939331},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C185798385","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1161707","display_name":"Benchmark (surveying)","level":2,"score":0.6690000295639038},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.659500002861023},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C108650721","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1783253","display_name":"Counterfactual thinking","level":2,"score":0.5623000264167786},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777508537","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7936620","display_name":"Visual reasoning","level":2,"score":0.5540000200271606},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C177769412","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q278090","display_name":"Prior probability","level":3,"score":0.5160999894142151},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C158495155","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2369151","display_name":"Visual search","level":2,"score":0.5040000081062317},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C26760741","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q160402","display_name":"Perception","level":2,"score":0.45489999651908875},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C184337299","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1437428","display_name":"Semantics (computer science)","level":2,"score":0.4521999955177307},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C86251818","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q816754","display_name":"Benchmarking","level":2,"score":0.4339999854564667},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C118505674","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42586063","display_name":"Encoder","level":2,"score":0.4196999967098236},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2776401178","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12050496","display_name":"Feature (linguistics)","level":2,"score":0.38499999046325684},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C204321447","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30642","display_name":"Natural language processing","level":1,"score":0.3720000088214874},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C119857082","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2539","display_name":"Machine learning","level":1,"score":0.3634999990463257},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2776214188","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q408386","display_name":"Inference","level":2,"score":0.35370001196861267},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C31972630","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q844240","display_name":"Computer vision","level":1,"score":0.3490000069141388},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C178253425","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q162668","display_name":"Visual perception","level":3,"score":0.3312000036239624},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C65909025","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1945033","display_name":"Monocular","level":2,"score":0.3292999863624573},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C774472","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6760393","display_name":"Margin (machine learning)","level":2,"score":0.3151000142097473},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2778828372","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5283209","display_name":"Distributional semantics","level":3,"score":0.30889999866485596},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C36464697","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q451553","display_name":"Visualization","level":2,"score":0.30489999055862427},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C126042441","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1324888","display_name":"Frame (networking)","level":2,"score":0.3012000024318695},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C125411270","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18653","display_name":"Encoding (memory)","level":2,"score":0.28349998593330383},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779010991","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2720909","display_name":"Artifact (error)","level":2,"score":0.2800999879837036},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C94966114","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29256","display_name":"Black box","level":2,"score":0.2721000015735626},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C157202957","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1659609","display_name":"Image warping","level":2,"score":0.2687000036239624},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C81917197","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q628760","display_name":"Selection (genetic algorithm)","level":2,"score":0.2662999927997589},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C137293760","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3621696","display_name":"Language model","level":2,"score":0.25870001316070557}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":null,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"Preprint"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2605.26380","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"Preprint"},"sustainable_development_goals":[{"score":0.4443344175815582,"display_name":"Peace, Justice and strong institutions","id":"https://metadata.un.org/sdg/16"}],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"pdf":false,"grobid_xml":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Frontier":[0],"multimodal":[1],"large":[2],"language":[3],"models":[4,50],"(MLLMs)":[5],"have":[6,32],"been":[7],"reported":[8],"to":[9,51,129,158],"achieve":[10],"over":[11],"90%":[12],"accuracy":[13,183],"on":[14,165,218,221],"fine-grained":[15,69,119,208],"perception":[16],"benchmarks.":[17],"However,":[18],"such":[19],"scores":[20],"do":[21,102],"not":[22,103,133],"necessarily":[23],"imply":[24],"faithful":[25],"use":[26],"of":[27,154],"visual":[28,65,83,107,167,209,224],"evidence.":[29,168,225],"Prior":[30],"studies":[31],"identified":[33],"three":[34,175],"shortcuts":[35],"that":[36,93,216],"inflate":[37],"benchmark":[38,120],"performance.":[39],"First,":[40],"linguistic":[41],"priors":[42],"and":[43,118,132,180,187],"lexical":[44],"cues":[45],"in":[46,73,207],"questions":[47],"often":[48],"enable":[49],"infer":[52],"plausible":[53],"answers":[54],"without":[55],"seeing":[56],"the":[57,64,78,87,155,188,197,212],"image.":[58],"Second,":[59],"coarse":[60],"global":[61],"semantics":[62],"from":[63],"encoder":[66],"can":[67],"bypass":[68],"local":[70],"details.":[71],"Third,":[72],"some":[74],"``think-with-images''":[75],"benchmarks,":[76],"corrupting":[77],"intermediate":[79,166,223],"images":[80,153],"returned":[81,148],"by":[82,149],"tools":[84,150],"barely":[85],"affects":[86],"final":[88],"answer.":[89],"These":[90,202],"findings":[91],"suggest":[92],"higher":[94],"input":[95],"resolution":[96],"or":[97],"larger":[98],"question":[99],"pools":[100],"alone":[101],"elicit":[104],"genuine":[105,222],"active":[106],"search.":[108],"To":[109],"address":[110],"this,":[111],"we":[112],"introduce":[113],"VisualNeedle,":[114],"a":[115,136,141],"challenging,":[116],"information-dense,":[117],"for":[121],"scenes":[122],"where":[123],"critical":[124],"evidence":[125],"is":[126],"spatially":[127],"constrained":[128],"minute":[130],"regions":[131],"discernible":[134],"at":[135],"glance.":[137],"We":[138,169],"further":[139],"propose":[140],"counterfactual":[142],"crop-black":[143,213],"setting,":[144],"which":[145],"replaces":[146],"crops":[147],"with":[151],"black":[152],"same":[156],"size,":[157],"test":[159],"whether":[160],"tool-enabled":[161,190],"performance":[162],"truly":[163],"relies":[164],"evaluate":[170],"9":[171],"promninent":[172],"MLLMs":[173],"across":[174],"settings:":[176],"no-tool,":[177],"standard":[178],"tool-enabled,":[179],"crop-black.":[181],"No-tool":[182],"stays":[184],"below":[185],"20\\%,":[186],"best":[189],"model":[191],"reaches":[192],"only":[193],"56.01\\%,":[194],"still":[195],"trailing":[196],"63.00%":[198],"human":[199],"majority-vote":[200],"accuracy.":[201],"results":[203],"reveal":[204],"persistent":[205],"limitations":[206],"search,":[210],"while":[211],"ablation":[214],"confirms":[215],"success":[217],"VisualNeedle":[219],"hinges":[220]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-07-01T06:00:48.157686","created_date":"2026-05-28T00:00:00"}
