Toggle search
Toggle menu
4.8K
5.5K
229
46.5K
VR & AR Wiki
Toggle preferences menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

Liquid Image

From VR & AR Wiki
More actions
Liquid Image
Information
Type Private
Industry Virtual reality, head-mounted displays
Founded 1992
Headquarters Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Notable Personnel Tony Havelka (President), Dave Collette (VP Engineering), Shannon O'Brien (Director, Marketing and Sales)
Products MRG2, MRG2.2, MRG3C, MRG4, MRG6, M1, X3, QuickSilver VR
Website http://www.liquidimage.ca


Liquid Image (Liquid Image Corporation) is a company that made VR headsets, wearable computers, and other VR products. It was a privately owned Canadian company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was established in 1992.[1][2] It built its products for military, scientific and entertainment uses.[1] The company's head-mounted displays were used in arcade virtual reality systems in the mid-1990s, and in the late 1990s it moved into lightweight monocular displays for wearable computing.[3][2]

Its website was www.liquidimage.ca.[4][5]

It was sold and rebranded TekGear.[6]

Its first product was the MRG2. It was a monocular HMD that used a 5.7" diagonal color TFT-LCD.[6][1] According to Bonhams, MRG2 sales at the original price of US$6,800 per unit brought in more than US$1,100,000, which it says comes to well under 200 units.[1]

The MRG2.2 was available for US$3,495.[7]

The MRG3 sold for $5500. It had a similar design to the MRG2 but had a higher resolution display. The company's MRG3c was listed in 2000 with a 768x556 pixel display at US$5,500.[8]

Reviewed 27 September 2026. Checked every new fact, spec, price and date against the archived 1994-1996 Liquid Image press releases, 1996 cpost.mb.ca profile, 1997 Computer Paper, 1999 ZDTV review, archived liquidimage.ca product pages, the HITL Visual Displays FAQ, the 2018 Bonhams lot and the 2016 Tek Gear release. About review dates.

History

Founding and the MRG2

According to a 1996 article on the Manitoba website cpost.mb.ca, Tony Havelka, the company's president, and David Collette wanted to enter the virtual reality entertainment business in 1993. Location-based entertainment systems of the time cost more than $150,000, and the profile says the "missing link" was a good head-mounted display, so Havelka chose to build only that component instead of complete systems.[9] The resulting MRG2 was a fiberglass-and-foam headset with an LCD screen and a separate metal control box.[1]

In 1994 the MRG2 won a Mecklermedia Virtual Reality Special Award, the Market Impact award, for its effect on the location-based entertainment market in 1993 and 1994. On 4 May 1994 Liquid Image cut the MRG2's price to US$3,495. In the same announcement the company said the headset had been used for thousands of hours at public venues from Disney World in Florida to video arcades in Vancouver, that it was popular with university researchers and the military, and that 12 of the 41 booths at the VR 94 show in San Jose would be showing the MRG2.[3] The company listed the MRG2 with 84 degrees of horizontal and 65 degrees of vertical field of view and a "full 240 x 240 resolution".[3]

On 4 July 1994 Liquid Image announced the MRG2V, a version of the MRG2 modified to work with the Virtuality arcade system as a replacement for the W Industries Visette headset. It cost US$3,495, carried a 120-day warranty and could be ordered with custom paint and operator logos.[10]

MRG4 and QuickSilver VR

The MRG4 was introduced at VR 94 in San Jose at a price of US$2,199. Dave Collette, then Director of Product Engineering, said the design drew on the company's experience with HMDs in arcades. The MRG4 came in a ruggedized arcade version and a version for less demanding settings, weighed 2.5 pounds, had a 60-degree horizontal field of view, needed no interpupillary distance adjustment, and was built from nylon, reinforced fibers and steel.[11]

The company later sold complete play systems under the QuickSilver VR name. By 1996 Liquid Image had built a virtual reality version of the game Duke Nukem and a VR mode of Rise of the Triad. The 1996 profile reported that the company had 12 employees in Winnipeg, counted NASA among its clients, supplied head-mounted displays for military training, and had placed six QuickSilver two-player systems in Saskatoon but none in Winnipeg. Havelka said the company had cut the price of QuickSilver to $25,000 by using designs it had developed for the military. The profile also said the company planned to set up eight player systems at the Cyber Village during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.[9]

Portable computing division and the MRG6

On 4 December 1996 Liquid Image announced a new division, Portable Computing Devices, to build VGA display devices for the wearable computer market. Dave Collette, by then Vice President of Engineering, was named to lead it. The company said it would first target commercial, industrial and military customers, and that it was in talks with several wearable computer manufacturers. At the time its product line consisted of the MRG2, MRG3 and MRG4 head-mounted displays, VR software and hardware, and QuickSilver VR.[2]

The first product from this effort was the MRG6, a monocle that could be attached to a soldier's helmet. The Computer Paper reported in February 1997 that it weighed 113 g (4 oz) and produced a picture comparable to a 14-inch VGA monitor viewed from 1.2 m, and that speakers, microphones, eye tracking and cameras could be added. Collette told the paper that Canada was about to begin a major development program to bring this kind of technology to the military. The company also proposed the display for firefighters, police officers and industrial users.[12]

M1 Personal Viewer

By early 1999 the company's newest product was the M1 Personal Viewer, a 4 oz head-mounted monocular viewer that accepted NTSC and VGA video.[13] Liquid Image called it the world's lightest commercially available monocular display.[14] In a January 1999 review, ZDTV's Fresh Gear described the US$995 M1 as a monocular head-mounted display for augmented reality applications, built around a backlit active-matrix LCD from Kopin Corporation. The reviewer found that VGA input worked only when the computer was set to 640x480, and wrote that the device was aimed at technicians and security officers who needed hands-free access to information, not at gamers or consumers.[15]

Liquid Image also made an agreement with ViA Inc. to sell the ViA II wearable PC, which it described as weighing 22 oz, together with the M1. A single customizable cable connected the two devices.[16] Archived copies of the company website from December 2000 still listed the MRG2.2 and MRG3c head-mounted displays, as special-order items.[7][8]

TekGear

Tek Gear, also based in Winnipeg, describes itself as a privately held company founded in 1997 by Tony Havelka and Eric Austman. In a July 2016 announcement, Havelka, as Tek Gear president, said the company had been in the VR business for more than 24 years, supplying immersive systems to military, medical, industrial and research customers.[17]

Products

The table lists specifications and prices as the company or the cited source published them. Prices are in US dollars.

Product Type Display and resolution Field of view Price Notes
MRG2 Single-screen head-mounted display[5] 5.7 inch LCD;[1] "240 x 240" (1994 release)[3] 84 degrees H x 65 degrees V[3] 6,800 at launch; 3,495 from May 1994[1][3] 1994 Mecklermedia Market Impact award; MRG2V variant for Virtuality systems[10]
MRG2.2 Head-mounted display (company: "Hybrid Biocular") Full color active-matrix TFT LCD, 720x240 pixels 84 degrees H x 65 degrees V 3,495 NTSC (PAL optional) input, composite or analog RGB, 40 ms response time, 40:1 contrast, built-in Sony stereo drivers[7]
MRG3 Head-mounted display Higher resolution than the MRG2 5,500 Part of the company's product line in December 1996[2]
MRG3C Head-mounted display (company: "Hybrid Biocular") Full color active-matrix TFT LCD, 768x556 pixels 84 degrees H x 65 degrees V 5,500 (SRP) NTSC/PAL, analog RGB; 15 ms response time; 100:1 contrast[8] The HITL FAQ lists a weight of 4 pounds[5]
MRG4 Arcade head-mounted display Full color active-matrix LCD, 960x234 dots (company, 1999);[18] 479 x 234 pixels in the HITL FAQ[5] 61 degrees H x 46 degrees V[18] 2,199 at launch (1994); 2,195 (1999)[11][18] 2.5 pounds; no IPD adjustment; ruggedized arcade and standard versions[11]
MRG5
MRG6 Helmet-mounted monocle VGA-class picture, compared to a 14-inch VGA monitor at 1.2 m[12] 40 degrees diagonal (HITL FAQ)[5] 113 g (4 oz); announced for military and industrial wearable computing[12]
Liquid Image M1 Monocular personal viewer Grayscale backlit active-matrix LCD from Kopin;[15] 320 x 240 pixels (76,800), 1,700 lines per inch[19] 16 degrees H[19] 995 (single unit); 900 each for 2 or more Head assembly under 4 oz and belt-pack electronics under 6 oz; VGA or NTSC input at 60 Hz or 72 Hz; display power 20 mW at 20 foot-lamberts; M1b, M1c, M1d and OEM versions also priced[19][20]
QuickSilver VR Two-player VR entertainment system Two MRG4 headsets 25,000 (including installation in most North American cities) Two PCs (minimum 120 MHz Pentium), two Ascension SpacePad trackers, DukeTrak 6DoF driver, Duke Nukem 3D site license, player pods[21]
Liquid Image X3 Full VGA head-mounted display (company: "Hybrid Biocular") Color active-matrix TFT LCD, 640 x 480 (x 3) pixels 84 degrees H x 65 degrees V 7,200 VGA input via 15-pin D-sub; 15 ms response time; 100:1 contrast[22]

Tracking software

For QuickSilver VR and its other systems, Liquid Image sold DukeTrak, a six degrees of freedom software driver that connected the QuickStick controller and an Ascension SpacePad, Ascension PC Bird or Polhemus InsideTrak tracker to 3D Realms' Duke Nukem 3D, so that players could look around and move with head tracking.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "VIRTUAL REALITY: LIQUID IMAGE. Two MRG2 head mounted displays with controller, 1994, Winnipeg". Bonhams, History of Science and Technology, Including Space History. 2018-12-05. https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24898/lot/651/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Liquid Image Corporation Announces New Division to Develop Portable Computing Devices". virtual-worlds newsgroup (archived by science-bbs.com). Liquid Image Corporation. 1996-12-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20131217055422/http://www.science-bbs.com/199-virtual-worlds/151391cc73417850.htm. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Liquid Image Lowers MRG2 Price to $3,495". virtual-worlds newsgroup (archived by science-bbs.com). Liquid Image Corporation. 1994-05-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20131217055422/http://www.science-bbs.com/199-virtual-worlds/3d09e351e7d0e9d7.htm. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  4. ↑ "Virtual Reality Platform". PUBLIC SED Grenoble WEBSITE Moved !. https://sed.inrialpes.fr/ARCHIVE/PRV/CATALOG/hmd.html. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Visual Displays FAQ". Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington. https://www.hitl.washington.edu/scivw/visual-faq.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Image
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "MRG2.2 HMD". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 2000-12-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20001219121900/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/mrg2.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "MRG3c HMD". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 2000-12-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20001219133300/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/mrg3.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Duke Nukem Goes Virtual.... In Winnipeg". cpost.mb.ca. https://web.archive.org/web/19961101110924/http://www.cpost.mb.ca:80/duke.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Award Winning MRG2 now available for Virtuality System". Human Interface Technology Laboratory SCIVW archive, University of Washington. Liquid Image Corporation. 1994-07-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20110114221956/http://www.hitl.washington.edu/scivw/scivw-ftp/commercial/HMD-Information/MRG2-Virtuality. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Liquid Image Introduces the MRG4". virtual-worlds newsgroup (archived by science-bbs.com). Liquid Image Corporation. 1994-05-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20131217055422/http://www.science-bbs.com/199-virtual-worlds/37dd10cc3fc64cc4.htm. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Jean Read (1997-02). "Lightweight monocle substitutes for PC screen". The Computer Paper. Canada Computer Paper Inc.. https://web.archive.org/web/19990427215927/http://tcp.ca/1997/9702/9702hw/lightwei/lightwei.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  13. ↑ "Liquid Image Corporation - Monocular Displays Head Mounted Displays Virtual Reality". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-02-22. https://web.archive.org/web/19990222024406/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/index.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  14. ↑ "M1 Personal Viewer". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1998-12-02. https://web.archive.org/web/19981202075159/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/vr/m1.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Philip Allingham (1999-01-09). "Liquid Image M1 Personal Viewer". ZDTV Fresh Gear. https://web.archive.org/web/20000208042122/http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/freshgear/firstlook/story/0,3679,2181667,00.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  16. ↑ "Wearables". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-10-07. https://web.archive.org/web/19991007055848/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/wearables.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  17. ↑ "Tek Gear Delivers free VR Headsets to everyone!". PR Newswire. Tek Gear. 2016-07-12. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tek-gear-delivers-free-vr-headsets-to-everyone-586846881.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 "MRG4 HMD". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-05-08. https://web.archive.org/web/19990508051343/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/mrg4.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 "M1 General Specifications". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-05-05. https://web.archive.org/web/19990505061127/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/m1genspec.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  20. ↑ "M1 Pricing". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-02-24. https://web.archive.org/web/19990224164009/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/m1price.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  21. ↑ "QuickSilver VR". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-01-27. https://web.archive.org/web/19990127091202/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/qsvr.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  22. ↑ "X3 Full VGA HMD". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-05-08. https://web.archive.org/web/19990508054826/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/x3.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  23. ↑ "Duke Nukem 3D DukeTrak 6DoF Software Driver". Liquid Image Corporation (archived). Liquid Image Corporation. 1999-04-17. https://web.archive.org/web/19990417052311/http://www.liquidimage.ca:80/dukedrv.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
Retrieved from "https://vrarwiki.com/index.php?title=Liquid_Image&oldid=45798"