1. In a computing environment, a method performed at least in part on at least one processor, the method comprising: segmenting depth data to isolate a hand represented in a plurality of frames that include hand movement; determining that a principal direction of the hand is not pointing in a predefined direction in an image plane; based on the determining, rotating the hand such that a palm of the hand has a normalized and oriented position relative to the image plane; extracting feature values corresponding to the rotated hand; and recognizing the hand movement as a hand gesture based upon the feature values.