An RGB-Based Gesture Framework for Virtual Reality Environments Jo˜ ao P. M. Ferreira 1 , Diego R. C. Dias 1,4(B ) , Marcelo P. Guimar˜ aes 2,3 , and Marcos A. M. Laia 1 1 Federal University of S˜ao Jo˜ao del-Rei - UFSJ, S˜ao Jo˜ ao del Rei, Brazil joaopmoferreira@gmail.com, diegocolombo.dias@gmail.com, marcoslaia@gmail.com 2 Brazilian Open University - Federal University of S˜ao Paulo, S˜ao Paulo, Brazil marcelodepaiva@gmail.com 3 Master Program of Faculty Campo Limpo Paulista, Faccamp, Campo Limpo Paulista, Brazil 4 Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology - BRAINN, Campinas, Brazil Abstract. Virtual reality is growing as a new interface between human and machine, new technologies improving the development of virtual reality applications, and the user’s experience is extremely important for the science improvement. In order to define a new approach based on already established and easily acquired techniques of detection and tracking, an interaction framework was developed. The developed frame- work is able to understand basic commands through gestures performed by the user. Making use of a simple RGB camera. It is able to be used in a simple virtual reality application, allowing the user to interact with the virtual environment using natural user interface, focusing on presenting a way to interact with users without deep knowledge of computing, pro- viding an easy-to-use interface. The results shows to be promising, and the possibilities of its uses are growing. 1 Introduction Virtual reality (VR) is an advanced interface for computational applications where the user navigates and interacts in real-time in a 3D environment gener- ated by computer [6]. The user interaction gestures captured from a camera to the virtual environ- ment is done through a framework developed using the OpenCV library. OpenCV is an open source library which implements computer vision techniques [9]. In addition to being free, the present functions are optimized and can work with the most modern computer systems, such as multiprocessing GPU or multicore technologies. Efficiency is important for real-time applications since the delays between a gesture and its response in the virtual environment can generate discom- forts, such as misinterpretation of gestures. Several proprietary technologies are c  Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 O. Gervasi et al. (Eds.): ICCSA 2018, LNCS 10963, pp. 790–803, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95171-3_61