In this paper, hardware and software solutions addressed to automatic gesture recognition are considered. Trends in image analysis in the current computer vision-based approaches are analysed. Each of the considered approaches was addressed, in order to reveal their advantages and drawbacks. Research papers on the usability of gesture interfaces were reviewed. It was revealed that sensor-based systems, being quite accurate and demonstrating high speed of recognition, have limited application due to the specificity of devices (gloves, suit) and their relatively narrow distribution. At the same time, computer vision-based approaches can be successfully applied only when problems of occlusions and datasets are solved. The results obtained can be used for designing training systems.