I'm prototyping a gesture recognition app for smartwatches that would let you control devices with hand gestures - like skipping videos while cooking or answering calls with dirty hands. I'm building it for current premium watches but hoping the concept could eventually work on affordable devices if manufacturers open up their platforms.

The technical challenges seem manageable with today's sensors, but I'm less sure about the actual user demand. Do people really want gesture control on their watches, or is this solving a problem that doesn't exist for most users?

I've found the "greasy hands while cooking" scenario useful in my own testing, but I'm wondering if that's too niche. Are there other everyday situations where touchless control would be genuinely helpful? Maybe for accessibility use cases, or for workers in specific fields?

Also curious if people would tolerate the likely battery impact. Continuous gesture detection probably cuts battery life significantly - is that tradeoff worth it for most users?

If you've tried similar gesture features on existing devices, what was your experience? Did you find yourself using them regularly, or did they feel more like a gimmick?