Meet Rex. According to his creators, he’s the
world’s first bionic man, comprising artificial organs, synthetic blood,
robotic limbs and a human face. And as if that’s not enough, he can speak and
listen, too.
Unveiled at a special exhibition at London’s
Science Museum this week, the artificial human was created for a Channel 4
documentary called How to Build a Bionic Man. The project cost £640k
($1m) and technology and prosthetic science.
“Strictly speaking, he’s not a robot,his parts
aren’t designed to work together, but each one either is, or soon could be,
part of a living human being.”
Rex’s two-meter-tall ‘body’, built with currently
available bionic and prosthetic technology, includes a prosthetic face, hands,
hips, knees and feet as well as cochlear implants which enable him to hear and
retinal implants that allow him to sense objects in front of him. Speech
synthesis technology means Rex can make sense of simple statements and even
respond to some questions.
Artificial blood pumps through his artificial
organs, which include a heart, kidney and pancreas. He also has a spleen and
trachea. The stomach is missing, but one imagines it won’t be too long before
the science boffins fix him up with one of those, too.
“Throughout history people have always sought to
enhance themselves to overcome disabilities or to become bigger, better,
stronger and faster .Science is making aspirations and even fantasy ever more
possible. We only have to look back at last summer’s Paralympics to see how
transforming technology has become.”
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