'Bionic man' goes on display in London

Researcher Bertolt Meyer, a lifelong user of prosthetic technology, handles the model for "Rex", the world's first "bionic man", during a photo call with the humanoid at the Science Museum in London on Tuesday. [Photo/Agencies]

A "bionic man" costing $1 million 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 2-meter humanoid with its uncannily lifelike face, was assembled by leading roboticists for a television program.

Although cheaper than the former astronaut with bionic implants in the Six Million Dollar Man, Rex's technology is more advanced than the fictional bionics on the 1970s US television series that starred Lee Majors.

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 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.