The World's First Robotic Man With Heart!

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1st Fully Bionic Man Walks, Talks and BreathesHe walks, he talks and he has a beating heart, but he'snot human — he's the world's first fully bionic man.Frankenstein's monster,cobbled together from a hodgepodge of body parts, the bionic man is an amalgamof the most advanced human prostheses — from robotic limbs to artificial organsto a blood-pumping circulatory system.on the Smithsonian Channelat 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDTThe creature "comes to life" in "TheIncredible Bionic Man," premiering Sunday (Oct. 20Million-dollar manRoboticists Rich Walker andMatthew Godden of Shadow Robot Co. in England led the assembly of the bionicman from prosthetic body parts and artificial organs donated by laboratoriesaround the world."Our job was to takethe delivery of a large collection of body parts — organs, limbs, eyes, heads —and over a frantic six weeks, turn those parts into a bionic man," Walkertold LiveScience during an interview. But it's not as simple as connectingeverything like Tinkertoys. "You put a prosthetic part on a human who ismissing that part," Walker said. "We had no human; we built a humanfor the prosthetic parts to occupy."The robot, which cost almost$1 million to build, was modeled in some physical aspects after Bertolt Meyer,a social psychologist at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, who wearsone of the world's most advanced bionic hands. The bionic man has the sameprosthetic hand as Meyer — the i-LIMB made by Touch Bionics — with a wristthat can fully rotate and motors in each finger. The hand's grasping abilitiesare impressive, but the bionic man still drops drinks sometimes."He's not the world's bestbartender," Walker said.The robot sports a pair of roboticankles and feet from BiOM in Bedford, Mass., designed and worn bybioengineer Hugh Herr of MIT's Media Lab, who lost his own legs after gettingtrapped in a blizzard as a teenager.Tosupport his prosthetic legs, the bionic man wears a robotic exoskeleton dubbed"Rex," made by REX Bionics in New Zealand. His awkward, jerky walkmakes him more Frankensteinian than ever. Factory-madeorgans But itdoesn't end there — the bionic man also has a nearly complete set of artificialorgans, including an artificial heart, blood, lungs (and windpipe), pancreas,spleen, kidney and functional circulatory system.Theartificial heart, made by SynCardia Systems in Tucson, Ariz., has been implantedin more than 100 people to replace their ailing hearts for six to 12 monthswhile they wait for a transplant, Walker said. The circulatory system, built bymedical researcher Alex Seifalian of University College London, consists ofveins and arteries made from a polymer used to create synthetic organs of anyshape.While itmight not satisfy the Scarecrow from "The Wizard of Oz," the bionicman's "brain" can mimic certain functions of the human brain. He hasa retinal prosthesis, made by Second Sight in Sylmar, Calif., which can restorelimited sight in blind people. He also sports a cochlear implant, speechrecognition and speech production systems.Theengineers equipped the bionic man with a sophisticated chatbot program that cancarry on a conversation. The only problem is, it has the persona of "anannoying 13-year-old boy from the Ukraine," Walker said.The mostunnerving aspect of the bionic man, though, is his prosthetic face. It's anuncanny replica of Meyer's face. In fact, when Meyer first saw it, he hated it,describing it on the show as "awkward."Thebionic man successfully simulates about two-thirds of the human body. But helacks a few major organs, including a liver, stomach and intestines, which arestill too complex to replicate in a lab.Thebionic man brings up some ethical and philosophical questions: Does creatingsomething so humanlike threaten notions of what it means to be human? Whatamount of body enhancement is acceptable? And is it wrong that only some peoplehave access to these life-extending technologies?The accessissue is especially troublesome, Walker said. "The preservation of lifeand quality of life has become basically a technical question and an economicquestion."Thebionic man made his U.S. debut at New York Comic Con Oct. 10-13, and he will beon display at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. this fall.

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PHOTOS:http://www.livescience.com/40535-show-unveils-worlds-first-bionic-man.htmlSOURCE: ROBOTIC MAN