The next time you line up to see a major blockbuster at the local Cineplex, you may have more than just the choice between a digital or IMAX 3D screen, theatre chain owners are now considering adding
D-Box motion-simulation chairs as another way to increase ticket sales. For years the Longueuil, Quebec-based company has crafted high-end living room armchairs powered with electromechanical ride systems that make them jump, vibrate, whirr, and mimic the physical movements of movie scenes with surprising accuracy and convincing sensations. Priced beyond the reach of the common consumer, the chairs can cost several thousand dollars and so have been limited to being offered as a luxury item only. Next week at the ShowEast 2008 convention in Orlando, Florida, the company will unveil a new version of their motion chair, one designed for commercial theatres that will hopefully change that.
What separates the D-Box chairs from other “interactive” living room products past and present, is the subtle and intelligent mechanics of their simulation. The armchairs are equipped with motors and servos capable of moving and lifting the chair through both a wide range of subtle movements as well as speeds. From the revving of an engine and the popping of a hail of incoming bullets to the throttling, push-you-back-into-the-headrest of a burst of speed and the sliding, spinning of an out-of-control car or plane. For each frame of any given movie, the chair can perform up to 124 different movements. The company has a team in Quebec that looks at every major movie release and creates a computer script that matches chair movements to on-screen action for every frame, twenty four frames per minute. Every movie is given its own custom motion code and the experience is one that contributes to the film, rather than merely reacts to it. D-Box’s popularity has grown amongst home theatre owners so much that many Blu-ray discs now include D-Box Motion codes.
D-Box chairs are available both in individual and loveseat versions
Canada AM fans may remember that I featured the chair on our show during my Christmas gadgets week in December, 2006. I had both our host Seamus O’Regan and film reviewer Richard Course take the chair through a car crash scene from the movie “I, Robot”. The chair mimicked both the futuristic car’s speed, its abrupt collision, the way it ricocheted off of the tunnel wall, banked on its side, slid along the road, the crumpling of metal as the robots landed on the hood, and then the sensation of scattered glass as the windshield shattered. It was beyond what both men had expected, neither jarring nor uncomfortable, but surprising and thrilling.
As a technology specialist and reporter I have been subjected to every kind of interactive product for watching movies or playing videos games at home, from bouncing wicker chairs to vibrating chest jackets to plates you’re supposed to slip under the seat cushion, every “butt-kicking”, “mind-blowing” contraption you can imagine, to the point where I was jaded beyond the most techno-phobic of consumers. I admit, that the only reason I gave D-Box a chance when I first met them many years ago was because they are Canadian. Like the critic Anton Ego at the end of the movie Ratatouille, they managed to completely turn around my feelings on interactive movie-watching and I still consider D-Box to be the only viable product worth anyone’s time and if it weren’t for the high price tags, I would be giving them more coverage.
Kris checks out the D-Box RaceCar, a version of their chair designed for racing games. The company also has a design for flight sims
D-Box held a showcase here in Toronto last week at Sound Designs, a high-end home theatre store located in the Distillery District and they told me that their upcoming consumer chair has already been in use at several theatre chains in the United States. The company choose a theatre within a selection of cities and replaced a handful of cinema seats with D-Box chairs. When buying tickets, consumers have been given the choice of sitting in the D-Box section.
The D-Box screening room at Sound Designs in TorontoWith the advent of big-screen, high-definition televisions, theatre chains have been exploring new ways to draw audiences out of their homes and into the cineplexes. The success of IMAX and IMAX 3D, another Canadian innovation, which continues to provide the industry with sell-out screenings and box office-setting records, has inspired theatre chains to invest in expanding their screen technologies, but the costs of installing digital theatres and IMAX screens has also motivated them to explore other, more inexpensive alternatives.
D-Box motions chairs are but one of many such alternatives being looked at by theatre chains and the results of the pilot tests being held in the States along with the official unveiling of the new commercial chair design next week will hopefully win the Canadian technology company their chance to share their innovations with all movie buffs.
Watch
RSS Feed