1. A method identifying a hand by analyzing captured images, the method comprising: activating at least one light source to illuminate a field of view containing a background and the hand including fingers; operating a camera to capture a plurality of digital images including a first digital image captured at a time when the at least one light source is illuminating the field of view; identifying pixels of the plurality of digital images that correspond to fingers of the hand that are visible in the plurality of digital images rather than to the background, the identifying including: detecting, from the plurality of digital images, Gaussian brightness falloff patterns indicative of the fingers of the hand that are visible; identifying a centerline axis of the visible fingers of the hand based on the detected Gaussian brightness falloff patterns indicative of the fingers without identifying edges of the visible fingers; and identifying the pixels that correspond to the visible fingers based on the identified centerline axis of the visible fingers; tracking motion of the identified pixels that correspond to the visible fingers through the plurality of digital images; and constructing a model of the visible fingers based on the identified pixels that correspond to the visible fingers and the tracked motion of the identified pixels that correspond to the visible fingers.