The Spark gesture control does not seem to function.  I have the latest firmware updates as of today (January 28, 2018).  The Spark Palm Gesture will recognize the palm control movement to the right but not the left!  I cannot control the altitude (up nor down) and and I cannot get the Spark to recognize my face nor folow.  It will take a "selfie" photo but not perform a video "selfie".

Any ideas or help would be most appreciated.

They say bright clothes help.

Tried bright clothes and tried dark clothes to no avail.  What does seem to work is if I also connect the DJI GO 4 app and then use palm controls.  To use palm controls on their own has been unsuccessful on my part.  Any ideas?

your doing better than me, i have never tried it without connecting to the go4 app first.
i don't feel comfortable flying before checking the signal strength of satellites and being able to take over if something goes wrong.
that said i need to test more as it doesn't seem to locate me at all.

My Jedi skills are also very poor with Spark. I guess force is not strong enough in me.
And I've also selfied myself while doing gestures.... looked waaaay too ridiculous for my age.
So I gave up gesture controls completely after I've heard voice in my head stating: Practice more you must, young padawan.

Hi, there. When you use gesture mode, please ensure that you turn on “Enable Advanced Gesture Control” under Visual Navigation Settings and ensure that the aircraft is in Gesture mode. Please do not wear dark clothes, or clothes may absorb infrared light. Fly the aircraft in open areas and windless conditions. The Gesture mode may not perform well when the aircraft flies over surfaces without texture, in extremely bright surfaces, or in heavy winds. Thanks for your support.

I’ve tried it all, twice. Clothes, shade, Sun and everything else. Spark takes off, and then it just sits there in a hover with the lights flashing. Got it in November and gesture mode has never worked.

Cinnies_Dad Posted at 2018-2-2 07:06
I’ve tried it all, twice. Clothes, shade, Sun and everything else. Spark takes off, and then it just sits there in a hover with the lights flashing. Got it in November and gesture mode has never worked.

I agree.  It is a rare sporadic event if and when it does work.  I think a firmware update that addresses this issue is required.

same situtation 1 of 10 attempts that spark recognize my hand and i can control him like a jedi . Palm land and start/stop recording 0 of 10 attempts worked

Mine does not even recognise. So it sits on my palm and does not take off.

I've been able to use gesture control in the following condition.
- wear contrasting clothes from the color of my hands
- the sun isn't behind me
- the bottom and front sensors are clean
- Advance Gesture Control is enabled within the app and have used at least once before attempting to use Spark only
- Movements are not to fast or to slow

In most cases I can get it to function on first try, if not I do it again following the above list.

I'm pretty impressed with the capability of the Spark

Ok - I have had good luck with Gesture mode but it does not work all the time.  The answer above is good but let me add some more:

If it is taking off it is seeing your face.  Next it needs to recognize your hand - This is just a guess but I believe that the spark has some parameters for what a hand should look like - size, tone, shape - so if it is not recognizing your hand do you have a friend with a different sized and shaped hand.  I am female and though I do not have a small hand I do not have a large one either.  So I would try that first - it just may  not like your hand.  Oneother  way to deal with your hand is try move back and forth and see if one distance works better then another - The spec calls for it to be pretty close but maybe with larger hand you may need to move back a little.  Once you have a distance that allows you to move the drone up and down and left and right then you should be able to get other functions to work as well.  

Remember that you need to be in tracking mode for video and picture mode to work - I read this as meaning you need it to recognize your wave so it flies up and away and starts tracking you.  My experience is until I get it up and away the photo and video will not work.   - Good luck let us know if another person with different hand can get it to work.