If you dread the thought of being parted from your cat for a time - help is at hand. Your feline friend can now scratch your hand from thousands of miles away.

Researchers at Japan's Ochanomizu University have developed a system for long distance communication between human and cat.

At the feline end, a motorised paw base encourages the cat to scratch. At the human end, the cat owner's hand is inserted into a glove-like cat dome.

The internet links to the two devices so that the cat owner feels a scratch on the hand.

BBC Click's LJ Rich went to find out more.

More at BBC.com/Click and @BBCClick.