Interacting with vehicle controls through gesture recognition

A gesture-based recognition system 100 obtains a vehicle occupant's desired command inputs through gesture recognition. An image of the vehicle's interior section is captured and the occupant's image is separated from the captured image. The occupants gesture is interpreted from the separated image. The interpreted desired command is rendered to the occupant along with a confirmation message. Based on a confirmation received from the occupant, the command actuator actuates the interpreted command. The system 100 may further assess the occupants state of attentiveness and any potential threats and provide inputs to a drive-assist system 150 if the occupant is inattentive. The system 100 may also provide warning signals to the occupant based on the detection of a potential collision threat. Further, the drivers image may be recognized by the system and a set of personalization functions are re-adjusted to a set of pre-stored settings.