# Understanding Depth and Height Perception in Large Visual-Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.11748 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11748/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Embodied and 3D vision-language models, one of 16 directions in Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models.
- Builds on 31 of its 39 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Aug 2024.

## Placed in

- Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models / [Embodied and 3D vision-language models](https://mlsanity.com/mllm/embodied-and-3d-vision-language-models/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Visual Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08485/) (2023)
- [BLIP-2: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training with Frozen Image Encoders and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12597/) (2023)
- [Improved Baselines with Visual Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03744/) (2023)
- [Deep reinforcement learning from human preferences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03741/) (2017)
- [InstructBLIP: Towards General-purpose Vision-Language Models with Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06500/) (2023)
- [MiniGPT-4: Enhancing Vision-Language Understanding with Advanced Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.10592/) (2023)
- [Visual Genome: Connecting Language and Vision Using Crowdsourced Dense Image Annotations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.07332/) (2016)
- [Challenging BIG-Bench Tasks and Whether Chain-of-Thought Can Solve Them](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09261/) (2022)
- [CLEVR: A Diagnostic Dataset for Compositional Language and Elementary Visual Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.06890/) (2016)
- [Cambrian-1: A Fully Open, Vision-Centric Exploration of Multimodal LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16860/) (2024)
- [EVA-CLIP: Improved Training Techniques for CLIP at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.15389/) (2023)
- [SpatialVLM: Endowing Vision-Language Models with Spatial Reasoning Capabilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12168/) (2024)
- [VideoBERT: A Joint Model for Video and Language Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.01766/) (2019)
- [LLaMA-Adapter V2: Parameter-Efficient Visual Instruction Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.15010/) (2023)
- [Object Detection in 20 Years: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05055/) (2019)
- [Winoground: Probing Vision and Language Models for Visio-Linguistic Compositionality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03162/) (2022)
- [VideoMamba: State Space Model for Efficient Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06977/) (2024)
- [Visual Spatial Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.00363/) (2022)
- [GeoQA: A Geometric Question Answering Benchmark Towards Multimodal Numerical Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.14517/) (2021)
- [Efficient Multimodal Learning from Data-centric Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.11530/) (2024)
- [MathBench: Evaluating the Theory and Application Proficiency of LLMs with a Hierarchical Mathematics Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12209/) (2024)
- [GeoEval: Benchmark for Evaluating LLMs and Multi-Modal Models on Geometry Problem-Solving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10104/) (2024)
- [Why is Winoground Hard? Investigating Failures in Visuolinguistic Compositionality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.00768/) (2022)
- [ShapeWorld - A new test methodology for multimodal language understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.04517/) (2017)
- [A3VLM: Actionable Articulation-Aware Vision Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07549/) (2024)
- [Probing Conceptual Understanding of Large Visual-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03659/) (2023)
- [Robustness Analysis on Foundational Segmentation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09278/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [How Far are VLMs from Visual Spatial Intelligence? A Benchmark-Driven Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18905/) (2025)
- [DepthCues: Evaluating Monocular Depth Perception in Large Vision Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17385/) (2024)
- [Eureka: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10566/) (2024)
- [HierarQ: Task-Aware Hierarchical Q-Former for Enhanced Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08585/) (2025)
- [Visual Language Models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10786/) (2025)
- [DisenQ: Disentangling Q-Former for Activity-Biometrics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07262/) (2025)
- [Punching Bag vs. Punching Person: Motion Transferability in Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00085/) (2025)
- [Disentangling Pictorial Cue Understanding from Language Bias in VLMs via Depth Ordering Task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.01503/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Geometric understanding - including depth and height perception - is fundamental to intelligence and crucial for navigating our environment. Despite the impressive capabilities of large Vision Language Models (VLMs), it remains unclear how well they possess the geometric understanding required for practical applications in visual perception. In this work, we focus on evaluating the geometric understanding of these models, specifically targeting their ability to perceive the depth and height of objects in an image. To address this, we introduce GeoMeter, a suite of benchmark datasets - encompassing 2D and 3D scenarios - to rigorously evaluate these aspects. By benchmarking 18 state-of-the-art VLMs, we found that although they excel in perceiving basic geometric properties like shape and size, they consistently struggle with depth and height perception. Our analysis reveal that these challenges stem from shortcomings in their depth and height reasoning capabilities and inherent biases. This study aims to pave the way for developing VLMs with enhanced geometric understanding by emphasizing depth and height perception as critical components necessary for real-world applications.