Vehicle operation detection device and vehicle operation detection method

A vehicle operation detection device, which is to be applied to a vehicle including a vehicle body having an opening portion, an opening and closing body configured to open and close the opening portion, a driving unit configured to cause an opening or closing operation of the opening and closing body, and a camera configured to capture an image of a periphery of the opening portion, and which detects a gesture of a user as a trigger to start the opening or closing operation of the opening and closing body, the vehicle operation detection device comprising:

• a storage unit configured to store a trained model obtained by machine learning using training data in which the image captured in advance and a body part used for the gesture of the user are associated with each other;
• an entry determination unit configured to determine whether, based on a position of the body part in the image obtained by inputting a newly captured image into the trained model, the body part enters a recognition area set in an imaging area of the camera;
• and
• a gesture determination unit configured to calculate a displacement vector of the body part based on a plurality of images captured at a time interval after it is determined that the body part enters the recognition area, and determine, in accordance with whether a direction of the displacement vector is a direction corresponding to the gesture, whether the gesture is made.