Systems and methods provide for gesture-based creation of interactive hotspots in a real world environment. A gesture made by a user in a three-dimensional space in the real world environment is detected by a motion capture device such as a camera, and the gesture is then identified and interpreted to create a “hotspot,” which is a region in three-dimensional space through which a user interacts with a computer system. The gesture may indicate that the hotspot is anchored to the real world environment or anchored to an object in the real world environment. The functionality of the hotspot is defined in order to identify the type of gesture which will initiate the hotspot and associate the activation of the hotspot with an activity in the system, such as control of an application on a computer or an electronic device connected with the system.