Clenching
When all fingers in extension are abducted (from the Long finger) all kinds of power grips can be made. When the abducted hand is closed fast it is easier / faster to form a Fist than the "Cage" with adducted fingers (see "Containing").

Eight action parameters are animated.

Fist
In the Fist all joints are not fully flexed: they are dynamic to widstand forces evoked by the body behind it and / or applied by forces from outside.

Fist
The Fist expressing power for defence and attack. On a raised arm an individual can express winning a competition or socially symbolize protest.

Large Grasp
All fingers are abducted from the Neutral position preparing the hand for holding the largest possible objects.

Containing
When all extended fingers are adducted after which the hand is closed by fast flexing all fingers it is easier / faster to form a Cage than a Fist.

Ten action parameters are animated.

Cage
All finger joints are at the end of their range and all phalanges, together with those of the thumb, enclose a box to catch and hide small objects. E.g. insects that are catched and eaten by more than half of the worlds population.

Cage
Typical wharped pattern of adducted top phalanges adjoined to the Palm making the Containing space.

Cup
The fingers are adducted from the Neutral position:
- to prepare the hand to contain water, heaving and drinking with the chin pressed to the side of the Palm,
- or to express the classical symbolic sign for charity: the plea for receiving alms.

Opposition
Thumb and Index: Pinch
The mirrored motion of thumb and fingers allows for this precision grip and hold of the smallest of objects and forms the epithomy of all grasping motions. Being at the center of the motion field it can be initiated from Neutral position but from the Large grasp as well. We animated it as if, in the action, the intention shifts from a power to a precision grip. In the, control driven, western world the Pinch symbolizes O.K.; affirming or rewarding a well ended action, expressing: "Good, all under control".

Ten action parameters are animated.

Apposition
Thumb to Palm
When opposing the thumb towards the palm the palm folds i.e. the metacarpals of Index and Long finger move backwards and the metacarpals of Ring and Little finger move towards the center of the Palm: allowing the hand to explore narrow spaces.

Three action parameters are animated.

Shown is the animation of ovoidal phalange motion in extension-flexion on the inter phalangeal joint of the Index.

One action parameter is animated.

In anatomical literature this phalange motion is hypothesized from measuring the male (convex) shape of the articulate joint surfaces of the phalange bones.
Through the inference that, in vivo, the incongruent male and female articulate cartilage surfaces on the bones can be the origin of quite different phalange motions. We concentrated on the motions of the phalanges themselves as they are they foundation to the functionalities of the human hand. We established those motions in two ways.
First we had four male and four female subjects "draw" extension-flexion, of four joints each, see the aparatus in the middle. So we collected data in vivo from thirty two joints from eight subjects. The analysis in the picture on the right was made on such an original "drawing". Secondly we simulated the motion by two-dimensionally moving egg-shaped sections over each other (not shown). The analyses show that the anatomical ovoid phalange motion is caused by two rotational axes with centers at a certain distance that we called the "ovoid shift" (OS). The joint in the shown analysis has an OS of 5mm with the larger radius in flexion.
We hypothesized the OS being located at the rest position of the joint when flexor and extensor muscles change their basal tendon balance. We infer one axis for extension and the other for flexion.

Conical segment motion:
animation with our NJA
The segment axis describes a cone as natural rotational axes are never perpendicular to the former and the proper segment axis. So all joints in the human hand have, in extension-flexion, conical segment motions on them, causing the typical motion pattern and closing postures as shown in the Taxonomy and several animations.

One action parameter is animated.

Circular segment motion:
animation with single LCS
The animation shows the usual unnatural extension-flexion motion of common hand models when they have single LCS' for joints.
Circular segment motion can very well simulate adduction-abduction segment motion on the fingers knuckles (not shown). We operationalized this with the same two methods we used on ovoidal motion by applying them to the elliptical lateral sections of the articulate joint surfaces of the meta carpal phalangeal joints.