In a minimally invasive surgical system, a plurality of video images is acquired. Each image includes a hand pose image. Depth data for the hand pose image is also acquired or synthesized. The hand pose image is segmented from the image using the depth data. The segmented image is combined with an acquired surgical site image using the depth data. The combined image is displayed to a person at a surgeon's console of the minimally invasive surgical system. Processing each of the video images in the plurality video images in this way reproduces the hand gesture overlaid on the video of the surgical site in the display.