D-Box Motion Control Shakes, Rattles, and Rolls You

I've seen "Cast Away" (the Tom Hanks stranded-on-an-island flick) plenty of times, but I can't say I've ever seen it while my chair was shaking, rattling, and heaving as Tom's doomed FedEx jet plowed into the ocean.

D-Box Technologies has been around for a few years now, and here in Vegas—in what's unquestionably one of the coolest demos at CES—execs are showing off their latest prototype: the Premiere Series, a line of comfy easy chairs with "intelligent" motorized axes that'll turn your home theater into a roller coaster.

Here's how it works: first, D-Box engineers go and create frame-by-frame "motion codes" for a movie (more than 700 films have motion codes now; new entries include "Independence Day," "I, Robot," "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," and "Live Free or Die Hard"). When you hit Play, the D-Box controller connected to your DVD or Blu-ray player syncs up your motorized chair with the D-Box motion codes, and before you know it, you're shaking, ducking, and weaving with the movie.

I tried it myself with a series of clips: first up, the terrifying plane crash in "Cast Away," and once I got over the initial surprise of being rattled around in the chair, I was pretty impressed with how subtle and precise the motion control was. Yes, there was plenty of rattling and shaking during the jet's steep descent, but after the shock of the crash, I felt myself gently bobbing in the water along with Tom Hanks. Impressive.

The coolest demo clip was for a very bad movie: "The Island," specifically the car chase when the huge, connected pairs of train wheels bounce and crash into the oncoming SUVs. Each bounce felt convincingly big and almost metallic, and when the crushed minivans exploded, well...coolness. I didn't want to leave the demo trailer.

Of course, none of this comes cheap. The two-axis Premiere model, which is set for release later this year, will be a bargain offering from D-Box for just...wait for it...about $3,500 or so. You can also get a three-axis (left, right, and back) platform that'll rattle the loveseat in your living room for about $7,000. Personally, that's a bit out of my price range; however, I'm told that D-Box may bring its technology to theaters at some point. That's something I'd pay $12 for.