# Beyond the Eye: Efficient Multimodal Reasoning via Self-Regulated Implicit Visual Tools

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.11106 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.11106/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Multimodal reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 22 of its 102 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Jul 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Multimodal reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/multimodal-reasoning/)
- Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models / [VLM benchmarks and visual reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/mllm/vlm-benchmarks-and-visual-reasoning/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Qwen2.5-VL Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13923/) (2025)
- [GPT-4o System Card](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21276/) (2024)
- [Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.06261/) (2025)
- [Qwen3-VL Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.21631/) (2025)
- [OpenAI o1 System Card](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16720/) (2024)
- [Kimi K2: Open Agentic Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.20534/) (2025)
- [Kimi K2.5: Visual Agentic Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.02276/) (2026)
- [GLM-4.5V and GLM-4.1V-Thinking: Towards Versatile Multimodal Reasoning with Scalable Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.01006/) (2025)
- [LMM-R1: Empowering 3B LMMs with Strong Reasoning Abilities Through Two-Stage Rule-Based RL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.07536/) (2025)
- [LogicVista: Multimodal LLM Logical Reasoning Benchmark in Visual Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.04973/) (2024)
- [Multimodal Chain-of-Thought Reasoning: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12605/) (2025)
- [R1-Zero's "Aha Moment" in Visual Reasoning on a 2B Non-SFT Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05132/) (2025)
- [MiMo-VL Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.03569/) (2025)
- [Reasoning Beyond Language: A Comprehensive Survey on Latent Chain-of-Thought Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16782/) (2025)
- [Chain-of-Visual-Thought: Teaching VLMs to See and Think Better with Continuous Visual Tokens](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19418/) (2025)
- [Seek in the Dark: Reasoning via Test-Time Instance-Level Policy Gradient in Latent Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13308/) (2025)
- [Latent Sketchpad: Sketching Visual Thoughts to Elicit Multimodal Reasoning in MLLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24514/) (2025)
- [The Latent Space: Foundation, Evolution, Mechanism, Ability, and Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02029/) (2026)
- [Reinforced Visual Perception with Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01656/) (2025)
- [Multimodal Chain of Continuous Thought for Latent-Space Reasoning in Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.12587/) (2025)
- [Skywork-R1V4: Toward Agentic Multimodal Intelligence through Interleaved Thinking with Images and DeepResearch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02395/) (2025)
- [Latent Visual States for Efficient Multimodal Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24233/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [FaithEyes: Towards Faithful Tool Use via Multi-Agent Process-Image Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28225/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have made remarkable progress on fine-grained perception tasks under the "Thinking with Images" (TwI) paradigm by iteratively performing various visual tool operations. However, this paradigm relies heavily on frequent external tool calls and repeated image re-encoding, which leads to substantial computational overhead and inference latency. To address these issues, we propose Beyond the Eye (BEE), a novel implicit visual tool paradigm centered on self-regulated capability. BEE directly incorporates visual tool invocation behaviors into the training objective and encourages the model to develop a self-regulated invocation mechanism. This design enables the model to adaptively balance internal knowledge and implicit tools, avoiding redundant tool usage while substantially reducing inference latency. Specifically, BEE involves a two-stage training process: (1) Formalized Chain-of-Thought (CoT) Supervised Fine-tuning (SFT). We construct CoT trajectories with structured tool slots and mixed invocation states. This stage activates the model's implicit tool representations and adaptive switching capability. (2) Self-regulated Reward-Driven Alignment. To address redundant tool usage caused by ambiguous cognitive boundaries, we first introduce the Net Tool Gain (NTG) metric to quantify this phenomenon. Based on this observation, we further propose a self-regulated reward mechanism. This mechanism penalizes ineffective tool dependency and encourages the model to perform knowledge routing, ensuring that implicit tools are invoked only when the model's internal knowledge is insufficient. BEE achieves state-of-the-art performance in fine-grained visual perception while remaining competitive in general reasoning tasks and achieving substantial gains in inference efficiency.