1. A behavior recognition apparatus which recognizes a user behavior from a hand movement made by a user, the behavior recognition apparatus comprising: a hand movement observation unit configured to detect the hand movement made by the user and output hand movement data indicating the hand movement; a velocity variation detection unit configured to detect a time at which a variation in velocity of a hand of the user occurs, from the hand movement data outputted from the hand movement observation unit; a feature selection unit configured to select the hand movement data that is outputted from the hand movement observation unit at specific times including the time detected by the velocity variation detection unit and times before and after the detected time; a standard behavior pattern storage unit configured to store a movement pattern data sequence represented by a hand movement data sequence, in association with the user behavior; and a behavior recognition unit configured to calculate a degree of similarity between the movement pattern data sequence stored in the standard behavior pattern storage unit and the hand movement data selected by the feature selection unit, and to recognize, as the user behavior, a behavior represented by the movement pattern data sequence when the degree of similarity is highest.