Gyrating at a Theater Near You: D-Box’s Moving Movie Seats
This summer, viewers of movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Super 8” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows–Part 2” won’t just see explosions, creature attacks and other bone-jarring scenes on screen. At 50 specially equipped theaters, they will be able to feel actors’ movements right in their seats.
In the latest attempt to make moviegoers feel like they are part of the action, D-Box Technologies Inc., a Montreal-based maker of custom-designed seats, is introducing physical motion to the movie-viewing experience.
Motions range from being pitched forward, backward and side to side, to experiencing a momentary freefall when a character, say, leaps off a cliff. Seat-side controls let squeamish viewers dial down the intensity level of the experience–which on the highest setting can reach up to two times the acceleration caused by gravity.