Although it looks like something out of a bad science fiction movie, developers in America have designed a robot with functioning, human-like eyes, arms and hands in the latest step towards the first "cyborg" lifeform.

	Domo is able to see what it is doing and respond, enabling it to hold items, like this ripe banana, without squashing them.

Created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Domo is able to interact with humans and move things with its arms thanks to two camera "eyeballs" linked to 12 computers.

Aaron Edsinger, the developer, designed the eyes to look human: "I found that, by making them immediately understandable as eyes, it was very easy to read the eye gaze direction, which is important when working with it."

In a major advance on assembly-line robots, it can sense its surroundings and does not work to a pre-programmed routine. MIT has also developed "walking" robots that adapt to their terrain.

However, there is still a long way to go before they can link human-like abilities into one robot.

"The real potential is going to be realised when they can do many types of manual tasks," said Mr Edsinger.

See more at people.csail.mit.edu/edsinger/domo.htm