"Robotic Exoskeleton" on show in London's Science Museum

A "bionic man" costing one million dollars went on display on Tuesday at Britain's Science Museum, complete with artificial organs, synthetic blood and robot limbs.

Named Rex, which is short for "Robotic Exoskeleton", the six foot six inch (two metre) humanoid with its uncannily life-like face was assembled by leading roboticists for a television programme.

Although cheaper than the "Six Million Dollar Man" made famous by the cult 1970s television series starring Lee Majors, the technology is far advanced from the fictional bionics on show back then.

The creation includes key advances in prosthetic technology, as well as an artificial pancreas, kidney, spleen and trachea and a functional blood circulatory system.

Welcoming Rex to the museum in London on Tuesday was Swiss social psychologist Bertolt Meyer, who was himself born without a left hand and has a sophisticated bionic replacement.

"I've looked around for new bionic technologies, out of personal interest, for a very long time and I think that until five or six years ago nothing much was happening," Meyer said.

"Then suddenly we are now at a point where we can build a body that is great and beautiful in its own special way."

The museum exhibit, which opens to the public on Thursday, will explore changing perceptions of human identity against the background of rapid progress in bionics -- although Rex is not strictly bionic as he does not include living tissue.

Below is a lengthy YouTube video, recorded in Dublin, discussing the issues that surround Prosthetics.

Bertolt Meyer
One of the panel members is Bertolt Meyer, who was born with a congenitally missing lower left arm. He was fitted with his first prosthetic device when he was only three months old.

The passive device he was fitted with at the time bears little comparison to the cutting edge 'active' prosthetic device he wears today. He is one of the first users of Touch Bionics' i-LIMB Pulse.

Between the ages of 14 and 19, Bertolt wore a body powered "split hook" device, which was attached via a harness operated by the movement of his remaining arm.