This relates to a device capable of automatically determining a user's gesture and/or finger positions based on one or more properties of the user's veins and methods for operation thereof. The device can include one or more sensors (e.g., a camera) to capture one or more images of the user's hand. The device can convert the image(s) to digital representations and can correlate the digital image(s) of the veins to one or more poses. From the pose(s), the device can determine the user's hand movements, and one or more gestures and/or finger positions can be determined from the hand movements. The device can interpret the gestures and/or finger positions as one or more input commands, and the device can perform an operation based on the input command(s). Examples of the disclosure include using the user input commands in virtual reality applications.