Provided are method and apparatus of defining at least a portion of a vicinity area of a portable device as an input area and controlling the portable device based on a user input provided on the input area, and the portable device enabling the method, wherein the portable device includes a sensing unit configured to sense a user input in a vicinity area of the portable device, a recognizer configured to recognize a user gesture corresponding to the user input, and an output unit configured to output a control instruction corresponding to the recognized user gesture to control the portable device.