When Oculus Rift finally becomes available to the general public and not just developers, there will be a flood of uses for the virtual reality headset other than just gaming. We have already written about its pornographic possibilities, but there is potential for more scientific and artistic uses too.

One experiment by Spanish group BeAnotherLab uses a Creative Commons technology called The Machine in order to discover what it would be like to swap genders entirely.

Using Oculus Rift headsets, male and female volunteers ape each other's actions to effectively gain the impression of what it would be like to have the body of a person of the opposite sex. The project could also work with people of a the same sex, as each body is different so would still provide an interesting experience, but with gender swapping, there are many foreign elements to explore in first person.

READ: At last, an Oculus Rift sex simulator is here: Had to happen (NSFW)

Both parties need to be completely in tune with each other, following the same movements throughout for the experience to work. They have to constantly agree on every movement they make, so you're unlikely to find the tech down at the nearest Namco Park anytime soon. But it's another example of the multiple uses that are emerging for the Oculus Rift headset as time goes by.

BeAnotherLab has also posted a video of its initial experiments, but be warned that there is some mild nudity, so it's not really suitable for work.