An image processing system comprises an image processor having image processing circuitry and an associated memory. The image processor is configured to implement a gesture recognition system utilizing the image processing circuitry and the memory. The gesture recognition system implemented by the image processor comprises a static pose recognition module. The static pose recognition module is configured to identify a hand region of interest in at least one image, to determine a contour of the hand region of interest, to triangulate the determined contour, to flatten the triangulated contour, to compute one or more features of the flattened contour, and to recognize a static pose of the hand region of interest based at least in part on the one or more computed features.