1. A gesture recognition apparatus that performs gesture recognition processing of recognizing a gesture from action of a recognition object taken in a moving image, the gesture recognition apparatus comprising: a gesture recognizing unit for performing the gesture recognition processing; a specific subject detecting unit for detecting a specific subject having a specific feature from the moving image; a moving speed computing unit for computing a moving speed per unit time of the specific subject; a moving pattern extracting unit for extracting a moving pattern of the specific subject; and a start/end judgment unit for judging movement of the specific subject as an instruction of start or end of the gesture recognition processing when the moving speed and the moving pattern satisfy predetermined conditions, wherein, if the start/end judgment unit starts the gesture recognition processing, the gesture recognizing unit performs the gesture recognition processing by recognizing a shape or a posture of the specific subject.