April 1st 2021 - Salt Lake City, UT – In the late 1980s George E. Gerpheide, PhD began work on the capacitive sensing technology that would become the GlidePoint® trackpad. In 1991, Cirque Corporation was founded and today we celebrate 30 years of providing world class human/machine interface solutions.
At the time GlidePoint launched, portable computers still used track balls or point sticks as their main input device. These technologies were imprecise, and prone to mechanical failure. The capacitive trackpad is impervious to environmental contaminants, has no moving parts and provides precision finger tracking. In 1994 the first notebook computer with a trackpad launched using Cirque’s technology to power the trackpad.
Throughout the 1990s, trackpads would become the de-facto standard for portable computers. Cirque also maintained a heavy retail presence providing desktop touchpads as a flexible mouse alternative device. GlidePoint would go on to win various industry awards and eventually Cirque expanded into the keyboard market with products like the Wave Keyboard and the Cirque Input Center.
Cirque always had a close relationship with Alps Electric, now Alps Alpine (Nikkei 225: APELY), particularly for supporting the notebook market. In 2003, Cirque became a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Alpine.
Eventually Cirque would expand into other markets. Today, touch solutions evolved from the original GlidePoint platform can be found in industrial/medical devices, luxury vehicles, game and virtual reality controllers and point of sale touchscreens. Notebook computers continue to be a main market segment for Cirque and GlidePoint trackpads are used daily by millions of computer users around the globe.
Cirque was named for the mountain Cirques of the Wasatch range. Our home has always been Salt Lake City, and our strength has always come from our team of engineering professionals who work every day to bring innovation and quality to our customers.
Anna Williamson, Cirque CFO, has been with the company for 25 years. She shared these these thoughts:
“I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of Cirque for many years and can honestly say it has been an amazing experience. There have been challenging times and many chances to grow and learn as an individual. Thank you to all my co-workers throughout the years. Thank you to our founders and the technologies they envisioned. Thank you to our customers and our vendors. And thank you to AlpsAlpine for allowing us to continue to be Cirque: A company of smart people working together to solve hard problems in our own unique way. I feel blessed to be a part of Cirque, surrounded by people that make my days better.”
Brian Monson, Cirque president, had this to say:
“30 years is an amazing accomplishment and fills me with gratitude for all the great current and past employees, customers, and vendors which have been instrumental in making this happen. I'm excited for the challenge the next 30 year presents. I'm confident that continued innovation in human interface solutions will be required.
I'm also confident that once again it will require close collaboration and partnerships with our customers and vendors. With those great partnerships I'm sure we can do innovative and amazing things that make me excited for the future.”
As we look towards the future, we wish to extend our sincerest thanks to our past and present employees and their families, to our customers, to our vendors, and to Alps Alpine. What we do would not be possible without these close partnerships. We are excited for the opportunities and challenges that the next 30 years will bring and look forward to continuing to explore the technology of touch.