Steve Perlman - Working Biography

Working Biography

1976-1983 Building his first computer from a kit during high school in 1976, Perlman proceeded to design and build several computers, graphics/video systems, modems, displays, audio systems, interface devices and video games, as well as all kinds of software, both for fun and for clients. Perlman graduated from Columbia University in 1983.

1983-1984 Perlman designed a parallel-processing graphics system at Atari. At Coleco, Perlman developed a massively-parallel 3D animation chip and a software-based high-speed modem.

In 1985 Perlman joined Apple Computer on the development team of some Macintosh multimedia technology including Road pizza, the video codec used by the first version of QuickTime 1.

In 1990 Perlman left Apple to join General Magic, where he designed its second-generation technology.

In 1994 Perlman co-founded Catapult Entertainment and was its Chief technical officer. Catapult developed the proprietary XBAND modems for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game consoles that enabled online features for multiplayer games.

In 1995 Perlman created, co-founded, and was the President & CEO of WebTV Networks, Inc. WebTV was introduced in 1996, and was one the earliest products to connect the Internet to a television. Less than 2 years after it was founded, WebTV was acquired by Microsoft Corporation for US$425 million, and renamed as MSN TV. Microsoft’s acquisition of WebTV also brought with it the teams that created Microsoft’s TV platforms, including the hardware for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

After a few years at Microsoft, Perlman left WebTV Networks in 1999 to found Rearden Steel, now Rearden, a business incubator for new companies in media and entertainment technology.

In 2000 Rearden founded Moxi Digital, Inc., which produced a combination digital video recorder, DVD player, digital music jukebox, and television set-top box. Moxi merged with Microsoft founder Paul Allen's Digeo in 2002.

In 2004 Rearden founded MOVA, which was spun off from Rearden in 2007 as an OnLive subsidiary. MOVA offers motion-capture services in the San Francisco Bay Area, with Perlman as its president. In 2006 Perlman unveiled Mova's Contour, a digital multi-camera system that captures and tracks detailed surface data and textures for post-production manipulation. It was used for 3D volumetric shape capture of Brad Pitt’s face in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which received the 2008 Academy Award for Achievement in Visual Effects for the photorealism achieved in computer-generated reverse-aging of Brad Pitt’s face.

In 2007 Rearden spun-out OnLive, which in 2009 announced the OnLive on-demand video game service and MicroConsole TV adapter, with Perlman as its president and CEO. The company launched the OnLive game service in June, 2010 in the US and September 22, 2011 in the UK and was initially offered on the PC, Macintosh and TV via OnLive's MicroConsole, and then later on the iPad, iPhone and Android Tablets and smartphones.

In 2011 Perlman announced that he and colleagues at Rearden have invented Distributed-Input-Distributed-Output (DIDO) technology, an experimental wireless communications system they claim will render cellular connections obsolete.

By December 2011, OnLive's catalog had grown to over 30 games, with about 3 games supporting touchscreen control.

In August 2012, OnLive filed for bankruptcy and was sold to one of its investors and Perlman left the company.