Compound gesture recognition

A method for executing and interpreting gesture inputs in a gesture recognition interface system, the method comprises obtaining a plurality of sequential images of a gesture input environment; detecting a first sub-gesture based on a three-dimensional location of at least one finger of a first hand of a user relative to displayed visual content in each of the plurality of sequential images of the gesture input environment; translating the first sub-gesture into a first device input that defines a given reference associated with a portion of the displayed visual content; detecting a second sub-gesture based on changes in the three-dimensional location of at least one finger of a second hand of the user while the first sub-gesture is maintained by the first hand of the user in each of the plurality of sequential images of the gesture input environment; and translating the second sub-gesture into a second device input that defines an execution command for the portion of the displayed visual content to which the given reference refers.