Techniques are provided for segmentation of a hand from a forearm in an image frame. A methodology implementing the techniques according to an embodiment includes estimating a wrist line within an image shape that includes a forearm and a hand. The wrist line estimation is based on a search for a minimum width region of the shape that is surrounded by adjacent regions of greater width on each side of the minimum width region. The method also includes determining a forearm segment, and a hand segment that is separated from the forearm segment by the wrist line. The method further includes labeling the forearm segment and the hand segment. The labeling is based on a connected component analysis of the forearm segment and the hand segment. The method further includes removing the labeled forearm segment from the image frame to generate the image segmentation of the hand.