New Headquarters - New Synergy

9883 South 500 West,
Sandy Utah 84070

New Headquarters - New Synergy and Commitment
in Providing Industry-Leading Technology

Cirque Corporation, a human interface solutions provider using capacitive touch technology, is excited to announce that the Cirque headquarters is moving from West Valley City, Utah to Sandy, Utah. The new facility will house R&D labs and work areas, testing equipment, and a new townhall for employees to meet, eat and hangout. The townhall will also be a place staff can bring their families to gather and test out some of Cirque’s own VR and gaming technology. The new Cirque HQ address is 9883 South 500 West Sandy, Utah 84070.

Brian Monson, Cirque’s President said “The new building will reinforce our synergistic culture and enable us to collaborate better across all teams. The new office will create more streamlined and efficient communication and development of the products our customers have come to rely on.” Monson also stated that “the lab and experiment areas are bigger and more equipped to expand our in-house testing and design capabilities.” The end result for customers will be faster design completion, more capability for immediate in-house testing, and more efficient communication with them along the way.

Jon Bertrand, Head of Engineering also agrees. “The improved layout of the new office will foster better collaboration for our engineers. With better spaces to explore areas such as RF and PTP (Precision TouchPad) testing, I foresee Cirque leading the way in capacitive and proximity technology for a very longtime.”

“The new space definitely has a cool factor that we haven’t had in the past. To me it feels like we’re making a step up in presenting ourselves as a cutting-edge tech company for the world to see. We hope this also translates to employees feeling proud and supported by the company they work for.” Anna Williamson, CFO reflected.

Cirque’s new office will also be a significant step forward in the journey to be a greener company. Being within walking distance of the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) high-speed rail, Cirque anticipates lots of employees utilizing mass transit to commute to work. To further encourage use of mass transit Cirque will provide all employees with passes for the UTA transit system. The office is also conveniently located near a major freeway which will improve commute times for employees throughout the area.

Overall Cirque is very pleased with the move to Sandy and looks forward to serving the community, employees and customers for a very long time in the new headquarters.

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Sandy Utah

Sandy is one of the many cities located in the Salt Lake County area and has a population of over 95,000 people. Sandy has lots to offer families and young professionals who work in the technology industry. Sandy is home to Hale Center Theater, RSL Soccer Arena, and many restaurants, coffee shops, and parks. If you like you can even catch a shuttle to Snowbird for a day on the slopes!

Cirque Corporation

Cirque continues to push the innovation envelope today by providing customers with both custom and standardized solutions for notebook touchpads, VR gaming accessories, secure point of sales touch screens, and proximity sensing capabilities. Cirque leads the way in capacitive touch and proximity technology.

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To our customers and partners,

Between earthquakes and COVID-19, it is undoubtedly an "interesting" time. Most importantly, we hope that you and your families are staying healthy and safe. It is critical that we all take care of ourselves and each other as we navigate these uncertain waters. At Cirque, we are continuing to build and deliver amazing touch solutions, and we want to take a few moments to provide you with an update on our operations.

A few weeks back, we performed testing of our IT systems and rolled out a work from home program. As a result, we were ready to go when government-mandated social distancing was ordered. Everything continues to function well, and most Cirque staff are successfully working from home.

Key personnel such as production and shipping/receiving are still operating in the Cirque office to make sure that orders get out the door on time. Staff working in the office are practicing enhanced cleaning routines and alternative scheduling to minimize interpersonal contact.

And yes, we did have an earthquake in the Salt Lake Valley last week. Those that were in the office got a pretty good shake, but there was no damage or power loss, and things were quickly back to normal.

Now more than ever we need effective technologies to help enable teams to stay productive, and we at Cirque are committed to continuing to provide touch solutions that make mobile work possible. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us with any concerns you may have.

The Cirque Team

Introducing the DOTKey™ Typing App

Salt Lake City, Utah - Cirque Corporation is pleased to introduce DOTKey – the revolutionary app that will change the way you type. DOTKey, developed by BYU computer science professor Frank Jones, provides an exciting new way to type and one that is more compatible with touch screen keyboards and mobile phones. Cirque will be working with DOTKey to promote their solution to the market.

While the QWERTY keyboard has long been the standard in the U.S., it is much criticized for being slow and inefficient due to the distance your fingers travel while typing. European countries have adopted other keyboard layouts better suited to language variations and typing efficiencies, but the U.S. has been slow to change. 

“We’re stuck in a cycle,” says Jones, “We teach kids how to use QWERTY because it’s everywhere. Why is QWERTY everywhere? Because we teach kids to use it.”

MIT Technology Review’s Rachel Metz believes, “if anything is going to convince us to replace or substantially alter the QWERTY keyboard, it will need to seriously improve how we communicate.”

Ask any smartphone or tablet user about the ease and accuracy of typed emails and text messages and you will hear stories replete with typos, auto-correct inaccuracies and the lack of privacy when using voice-to-text functionality.

Enter DOTKey for iOS and Android.

DOTKey adjusts to your hand.

DOTKey’s user-friendly experience adjusts to your hand instead of forcing you to adjust to a keyboard. Utilizing advanced gesture recognition algorithms, users can quickly and accurately type through a series of taps or swipes of a finger or fingers. Not only does it facilitate typing with one hand (right or left), it also adjusts to three-finger or five-finger inputs and even follows hand drift movement for uninterrupted typing.

We are excited about the new paradigm for touchscreen and touchpad input that DOTKey can create. We believe the technology can disrupt the input market as we know it today and are honored to be working with DOTKey to drive market adoption.

-Nate Coy, Chief Sales Officer, Cirque Corporation

To learn more about DOTKey, go to their website , or start practicing by downloading the iOS or Android mobile app. For custom integrations and enterprise applications, contact Cirque at info@cirque.com.

The Cirque and DOTKey alliance is a great fit and one that supports the type of adaptive touch technology that will create the next chapter in human interface solutions. Cirque is one of the original inventors of capacitive touch technology and continues to push the innovation envelope for new input methods in markets like virtual reality, secure payment and computing.

For more about Cirque and the range of solutions we offer, visit www.cirque.com.

Advanced Gen4 Trackpad Dev Kit Now Available

Salt Lake City, UT - Cirque has released a new development kit that features an advanced GlidePoint® Gen4 trackpad. Gen4 features high resolution x,y tracking as well as built in gestures for a driver-free multi-touch experience. Coming soon, Gen4 will also feature compatibility with Microsoft's Precision Touchpad Protocol (PTP) which enables high performance native trackpad features with recent versions of Windows. 

Along with the Gen4 trackpad is an Arduino-based development board and sample code to make it easy for developers to get up and running with GlidePoint.  This development board features an expandable design for connecting haptics, sensors and other devices. This flexible system enables rapid development and can serve as the foundation for a full product design project.

The GlidePoint Gen4 Development Kit is available for purchase at https://www.cirque.com/gen4-trackpad-dev-kit. 

Off the shelf trackpads, including several sizes of Gen4 modules can be found here: https://www.cirque.com/glidepointspecification.

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Cirque is one of the original inventors of capacitive touch technology and continues to push the innovation envelope for new input methods in markets like virtual reality, secure payment and computing. For more about Cirque and the range of solutions we offer, visit www.cirque.com.

Cirque is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Electric, a world leading electro-mechanical components supplier. To learn more about the wide range of solutions offered by Alps Electric, visit www.alps.com.

Cirque, GlidePoint and all associated logos are registered trademarks of Cirque Corporation.

Alps and all associated logos are registered trademarks of Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Cirque at the Sensor Expo 2018

Cirque Corp. will be exhibiting at the Sensor Expo 2018. We will be located inside the ALPS Electric booth 916. We will be showing off our VR Grip demo and some of our custom sensors. You can always check out our demos on our youtube channel if you won't be attending the Sensor Expo. 

Sensors Expo & Conference is the largest gathering of engineers and engineering professionals involved in sensors and sensing-related technologies. For over 30 years, more than 6,400 professionals gather from across the nation and 40+ countries to explore today's sensor technologies and find the solutions to tomorrow's sensing challenges. The 2018 event will host 300+ exhibitors on the Expo Floor, leading experts from the industry in the most comprehensive sensor-focused Conference Program, and unparalleled Event Features and Networking Opportunities.

VR Grip™

The Future of VR & AR

 Salt Lake City, UT, 4/5/18 – Cirque is pleased to introduce their latest technology platform, VR Grip™, a solution that combines capacitive touch with proximity sensing to create a truly integrated virtual reality experience. VR Grip™ combines tracking of a users hand and fingers on the controller surface, and with proximity sensing to tracks finger position in the open space above the controller surface. This provides functionality similar to a glove tracking system, while maintaining the direct tactile feedback and trigger control of a controller. Cirque’s VR Grip™ was featured at CES 2018 and can be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/kKNRDxCsKDI.

Of the company’s recent developments in VR and AR, Cirque’s President, Brian Monson, said “VR Grip™ introduces the next generation of controllers for both virtual and augmented reality, in which you can fully integrate the controller into an application for a true immersive experience unlike any other.”

Cirque’s architecture uses only one touch controller chip to power both the VR Grip sensor and a traditional trackpad. This enables flexible and affordable architectures. A development kit is available to experience VR Grip and start developing your own project. Visit http://www.cirque.com/cirque-vr-grip to learn more.

Cirque Corporation is the inventor and original developer of capacitive trackpad technology, founded in 1991. Since that time, our original GlidePoint® technology has provided the core of each new development of touch-input solutions. Visit www.cirque.com and our YouTube channel to discover more. 

BYU IC Innovation Seminar with Cirque

Salt Lake City, UT

Engineers from Cirque’s IC design and R&D teams will be speaking at Brigham Young University this March. The subject will be driving innovation with multi-disciplinary engineering teams. No preregistration is required. For questions, contact Brent Quist at bquist@cirque.com.

Event Details:

• Date: Thursday, March 29 2018
• Time: 11:00am to 12:00pm
• Location: Clyde Building, Room CB406

Discussion Abstract:  

Cirque IC design and research engineers present a view of innovation and development principles in a small, technically diverse company competing in a marketplace dominated by large corporations.

Cirque Corporation invented capacitive touch pads in the early 1990’s. Since then, there have been many incremental developments mixed with some significant changes. Touch pads today have many more features including the ability to track multiple fingers and gestures. These require a complex system that involves a variety of engineering disciplines.

The peculiar market position of Cirque creates a unique development environment in which innovation is more important than professional position or engineering discipline.  It is a vertical technical development environment, somewhat akin to a microcosm of Apple or Samsung.

IC Designers at Cirque Corporation utilize flexibility to innovate with input from strategic marketing, firmware, software, and Cirque’s parent company, Alps Electric Co., Ltd.  Innovation is common and encouraged throughout the whole development process from every engineering discipline: silicon-firmware-PCB-module-software-test-production.

In a market dominated by ever-more-global large corporations, it is uncommon to find a small company that develops IC’s, PCB’s, in-house firmware / software, and modules.  Cirque is one of those companies.