Add a custom gesture to a scene

To define a custom gesture and add it to a scene:

  1. Start by creating a Hand Shape asset.

  2. For each finger that must be held in a specific way, add the necessary finger shapes to the conditions in the Hand Shape asset.

  3. If the gesture design requires that the hand be oriented in a specific way relative to either the world Up vector or relative to the user, then create a Hand Pose asset.

  4. In the Hand Pose, reference the Hand Shape and add the necessary Hand Orientation Conditions.

  5. In the scene that should contain the gesture recognizer, create a GameObject and add a Static Hand Gesture component to it.

    Note

    Any XR scene should already be configured with an XR Origin. The gesture component also needs a reference to an XRHandTrackingEvents component in the scene to get hand tracking data. One of these components is needed for each hand. Refer to Access hand data from Unity components in the scene for more information.

  6. In the Static Hand Gesture component Inspector:

    1. Add a reference to the XRHandTrackingEvents component for the hand that you want to perform the gesture. (If you want both hands to be able to perform a gesture, you need to add two Static Hand Gesture components. They can share Hand Shape or Hand Pose assets.)
    2. Add a reference to the Hand Shape or Hand Pose asset.
    3. If the gesture design requires that the hand be oriented in a specific way relative to a target GameObject in the scene, add the necessary Hand Orientation Conditions to identify the orientation and the target object.
    4. Adjust the recognition time properties, Minimum Hold Time and Gesture Detection Interval for reliable gesture detection.
    5. Hook up the Gesture Performed and Gesture Ended events to the appropriate event handlers in the scene.
    6. Assign your HandShape and HandPose assets to the right side missing references in the two Gesture Performed events.

A Static Hand Gesture component can recognize a single gesture for either the right or the left hand. Add a component for each different gesture that you want recognized.

Tip

You can use the Gesture debugger scene to help develop and test gestures.