With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, human‐computer interaction, as the core of virtual reality system, has become an increasingly important part of modern science and technology products. At present, human‐computer interaction is mainly based on contact, which must be completed through direct contact between hand and receiving equipment, rather than through indirect contact between hand and equipment. Direct interaction can not give full play to the advantages of flexible human hand, so gesture recognition becomes extremely important in interaction.The development of gesture recognition technology based on vision is a process from 2D to 3D. Early gesture recognition is based on the recognition technology of two‐dimensional color image, which means to get two‐dimensional static image after taking the scene with ordinary camera, and then recognize the content of the image through the computer graphic algorithm. With the development of camera and sensor technology, the depth information of gesture can be captured, and 3D gesture recognition technology can recognize various hand shapes, gestures and actions.Virtual reality is a kind of simulated virtual environment generated by computer according to reality and imagination space, which makes users have immersive feeling in the real world. Through various interactive behaviors, it stimulates users’ perception systems such as vision, touch and hearing, so as to establish a comprehensive sensory experience. Nowadays, virtual reality interaction is more based on the handle of virtual reality device or operating gloves, but using these devices is too complex, so gesture interaction based on bare hands will have a broader prospect.The virtual reality interaction technology based on gesture recognition is to recognize human hand movements with cameras and other devices and interact with the virtual scene. Users can control the virtual scene and interact through simple gestures. Gesture recognition is now applied in many industries, but the interaction of gesture in virtual reality is not so popular. This paper will analyze the development status of gesture recognition in virtual reality technology, and prospect the development trend of virtual reality technology based on gesture recognition.