Hanson Robotics is one of the world's foremost creators of life-like androids. This gallery reveals how their robots are built and also where they're built: a quirky workspace in the home of founder Evan Hanson in Richardson, Texas.

This image shows the front view of an android designed to look and act like Bina Rothblatt. Its skin is made of a spongy elastic plymer called Frubber, which allows the kind of refined facial expressions that will be necessary, Hanson says, for humans to relate to and connect emotionally with their android counterparts.

Also see Bruno Maddox's related essay on the complicated relationship between humans and androids.