Computer Vision
You MUST use this skill for ANY computer vision work using the Vision framework.
Quick Reference
| Symptom / Task | Reference |
|---|---|
| Subject segmentation, lifting | See skills/vision-framework.md |
| Hand/body pose detection | See skills/vision-framework.md |
| Text recognition (OCR) | See skills/vision-framework.md |
| Barcode/QR code detection | See skills/vision-framework.md |
| Document scanning | See skills/vision-framework.md |
| DataScannerViewController | See skills/vision-framework.md |
| Structured document extraction (iOS 26+) | See skills/vision-framework.md |
| Isolate object excluding hand | See skills/vision-framework.md |
Tap-to-segment any object OS27 | See skills/vision-ref.md |
Vision on watchOS watchOS27 | See skills/vision-ref.md |
Vision tools for Foundation Models (BarcodeReaderTool, OCRTool) OS27 | See skills/vision-ref.md |
| Vision framework API reference | See skills/vision-ref.md |
| Visual Intelligence integration (iOS 26+, iPadOS27/macOS27) | See skills/vision-ref.md |
Sensitive content classification (nudity/gore/violence), categorized via detectedTypes (OS27) | See skills/vision-ref.md |
Group/cluster faces into people across a library, video highlights/key frames (OS27) | Use axiom-media (skills/media-intelligence.md) instead — MediaIntelligence clusters identities; Vision detects faces in one image |
| Subject not detected | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| Hand/body pose missing landmarks | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| Low confidence observations | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| UI freezing during processing | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| Coordinate conversion bugs | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| Text not recognized / wrong chars | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| Barcode not detected | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| DataScanner blank / no items | See skills/vision-diag.md |
| Document edges not detected | See skills/vision-diag.md |
Decision Tree
dotdigraph vision { start [label="Computer vision task" shape=ellipse]; what [label="What do you need?" shape=diamond]; start -> what; what -> "skills/vision-framework.md" [label="implement feature"]; what -> "skills/vision-ref.md" [label="API reference"]; what -> "skills/vision-ref.md" [label="Visual Intelligence"]; what -> "skills/vision-ref.md" [label="tap-to-segment / watchOS / FM tools (27)"]; what -> "skills/vision-diag.md" [label="something broken"]; }
- Implementing (pose, segmentation, OCR, barcodes, documents, live scanning)? →
skills/vision-framework.md - Visual Intelligence system integration (camera/screenshot search; iOS 26+, iPadOS27/macOS27)? →
skills/vision-ref.md(Visual Intelligence section) - Tap-to-segment, Vision on watchOS, or Vision tools for Foundation Models (27 cycle)? →
skills/vision-ref.md - Need API reference / code examples? →
skills/vision-ref.md - Debugging issues (detection failures, confidence, coordinates)? →
skills/vision-diag.md
Critical Patterns
Implementation (skills/vision-framework.md):
- Decision tree for choosing the right Vision API
- Subject segmentation with VisionKit
- Isolating objects while excluding hands (combining APIs)
- Hand/body pose detection (21/19 landmarks)
- Text recognition (fast vs accurate modes)
- Barcode detection with symbology selection
- Document scanning and structured extraction (iOS 26+)
- Live scanning with DataScannerViewController
- CoreImage HDR compositing
Diagnostics (skills/vision-diag.md):
- Subject detection failures (edge of frame, lighting)
- Landmark tracking issues (confidence thresholds)
- Performance optimization (frame skipping, downscaling)
- Coordinate conversion (lower-left vs top-left origin)
- Text recognition failures (language, contrast)
- Barcode detection issues (symbology, size, glare)
- DataScanner troubleshooting (availability, data types)
Anti-Rationalization
| Thought | Reality |
|---|---|
| "Vision framework is just a request/handler pattern" | Vision has coordinate conversion, confidence thresholds, and performance gotchas. vision-framework.md covers them. |
| "I'll handle text recognition without the skill" | VNRecognizeTextRequest has fast/accurate modes and language-specific settings. vision-framework.md has the patterns. |
| "Subject segmentation is straightforward" | Instance masks have HDR compositing and hand-exclusion patterns. vision-framework.md covers complex scenarios. |
| "Visual Intelligence is just the camera API" | Visual Intelligence is a system-level feature requiring IntentValueQuery and SemanticContentDescriptor. vision-ref.md has the integration section. |
| "I'll just process on the main thread" | Vision blocks UI on older devices. Users on iPhone 12 will experience frozen app. 15 min to add background queue. |
Example Invocations
User: "How do I detect hand pose in an image?"
→ See skills/vision-framework.md
User: "Isolate a subject but exclude the user's hands"
→ See skills/vision-framework.md
User: "How do I read text from an image?"
→ See skills/vision-framework.md
User: "Scan QR codes with the camera"
→ See skills/vision-framework.md
User: "Subject detection isn't working"
→ See skills/vision-diag.md
User: "Text recognition returns wrong characters"
→ See skills/vision-diag.md
User: "Show me VNDetectHumanBodyPoseRequest examples"
→ See skills/vision-ref.md
User: "How do I make my app work with Visual Intelligence?"
→ See skills/vision-ref.md
User: "Let users tap an object in a photo to cut it out"
→ See skills/vision-ref.md (Iterative Segmentation)
User: "Can I use Vision in my watchOS app?"
→ See skills/vision-ref.md (Vision on watchOS)
User: "RecognizeDocumentsRequest API reference"
→ See skills/vision-ref.md
User: "Group faces into people across my library" / "cluster faces on-device into persons"
→ Use axiom-media (skills/media-intelligence.md) — identity clustering across assets, not per-image detection
