The authors present a hand model that simultaneously satisfies both the synthesis and analysis requirements of model based compression. The model can be fitted to any person's hand and can be done using a single camera. Once the model is fitted to a real human hand, it is then used in several tracking scenarios in order to verify its effectiveness. With successful tracking achieved, the model is ready to be incorporated into a virtual environment or model based compression scheme such as sign language communication over telephone lines or virtual teleconferences over computer networks at very low bit rates and at very high image quality.>