Clinical laboratory IT solutions 'could contain virtual limbs with sensation'

Any scientist involved in intricate and delicate laboratory experiments may have wished for an extra arm at times; but now it seems clinical laboratory IT solutions of the future could grant that wish.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have been investigating human perception with regards to our own bodies, limbs and the general extent of our physical awareness.

They were trying to determine how, for example, the perception of a prosthetic limb differs from that of its 'real' predecessor.

However, they now claim to have developed ways in which people can cast their minds outside of their own bodies and into others - but the process does not work with inanimate objects.

Ultimately they hope that it may be possible to make the mind aware of additional limbs as if they were the body's own, with potential applications in clinical laboratory IT solutions and prosthetics in general.

Comic book fans may recognise the concept as being similar to that behind Spider-Man's enemy Doctor Octopus, also known as Doc Ock, who creates four additional mechanical limbs to complement his own.