LAS VEGAS -- So the Joneses have a hot new digital TV and audio system that lets them see every wrinkle on Bruce Willis' face and hear his voice as though he were standing next to them. Big deal. Can they *feel the explosion when he blows up the asteroid? For US$15,000, you can top nearly any neighbor by equipping your living room with an Odyssee "kinetic home theater." The system from Canada's D-Box Audio will make your furniture shake, rattle, and roll in sync to the action on your TV screen.
Computer chips in four "kinetic actuators" planted under the legs of your couch or chair activate a metal plate that vibrates, tips, or tilts your seating in response to sonic signals from your DVD player, VCR, or stereo.
Sitting through a demo at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where D-Box is premiering the gadget, you could feel the powerful rumblings of the rocket launches in Apollo 13. You could feel the mighty footfalls of the Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park. A Schwarzenegger film could make you seasick.
The Odyssee won this year's CES Design and Engineering Showcase Award and attracted a lot of gee-whiz attention on the convention floor.
"It's like a ride," enthused Steve Marsh, a twenty-something audio components salesman from California. "If I could afford it, I'd get it. I'm an action adventure junkie. I'd crank it all the way up, because I want to BE there. But you wouldn't get much out of it in a chick flick."
Not so, said D-Box president Michel Jacques. The system can be finely tuned, to give you subtler sensations, such as travelling over a gravel road. "It adds a lot of emotion to your experience, the way adding sound to movies did."
But audio advertising executive Neal Melden predicted the system would be like theaters' attempts to introduce smells to movies decades ago.
"It's very effective technology for a 15-minute ride at Knott's Berry Farm," said Melden. "But at home, when you're trying to relax, you'd get very tired of it."
Ultra-high-end electronics junkies are not like the rest of us, however. There are people who spend six figures on their home theater systems, people who are always looking for the latest thing.
D-Box isn't shooting for the WalMart crowd. Jacques said the company aims to sell only 500 units worldwide this year. But as production grows, he expects the prices to drop -- to a paltry $3,000.
"I wouldn't want to try making a living by selling them, but I've got a few clients that would take them," says Rob Gerhardt, a home theater installer from Connecticut. "It's a gimmick, but that's the nature of the business."
