Japanese Researchers Create A Chair That Makes Horror Movies Even Scarier

By Anthea Quay, 13 Aug 2012

For those who seek a ‘richer experience’ when it comes to watching horror movies, Tokyo-based researchers led by Shogo Fukushima from the University of Electro-Communications have created a chair that artificially intensifies the ‘emotional feeling’ through haptic technologies when you get scared.

Called the ‘Chilly Chair’, the chair has armrests and a backrest that sends out electrostatic force to literally make your hair stand.

The involuntary physiological change in body sensations enhance the emotional feeling experienced—enabling the change in a person’s physical and emotional experience when it comes to watching horror movies, making the movie feel even scarier.

“We constructed a device that controls piloerection on the forearm by electrostatic force. From a psychophysical experiment, we revealed that the piloerection system has enhancement effect on ‘surprise’ feeling,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

Check out the video below to see how the chair works: