On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Researchers at Stanford University discover a means to add further health-tracking capability to wearable devices-- a patch able to measure how much cortisol the wearer is producing by drawing in stress.

Cortisol known as the stress hormone, and is involved in many physiological functions. The levels of the hormone rise and fall naturally throughout the day, but spike in the case of stress. Current methods for measuring cortisol levels require several days of waiting for lab results, but the Stanford wearable sensor can measure cortisol levels far more quickly and non-invasively.

“We are particularly interested in sweat sensing, because it offers noninvasive and continuous monitoring of various biomarkers for a range of physiological conditions,” the researchers say. “This offers a novel approach for the early detection of various diseases and evaluation of sports performance.”

Bang & Olufsen reveals plans to phase out the B&O Play-- aka BeoPlay-- sub-brand, meaning all products from the Danish high-end CE maker will be sold under the single Bang & Olufsen umbrella.

The announcement comes from the B&O 2018/2018 earnings report. It states the rebranding effort started back in 1 June 2018, and over the next few months the company will start combining the two brands in areas such as marketing, product packaging and online presence.

Chassis and cooling specialist NZXT is the next company to take on PSUs with the E series-- a range of modular 80 Plus Bronze-rated ATX PSUs offering active monitoring of temperature and power consumption across the 12V rail.

The E series PSUs are based on the Seasonic Focus+ Gold platform featuring PMBus architecture, together with a Texas Instruments DSP and USB connectivity. The lineup consists of 500, 650 and 850W models, all carrying Japanese capacitors able to handle temperatures reaching 105 degrees Celsius, as well as overcurrent protection for the 12V rail.

Next generation VR headsets needs a different kind of connection standard, the industry declares. Enter the VirtualLink standard, a USB-C alternate mode able to provide all necessary power and data through a single Type-C cable and connector.

VirtualLink is developed by a newly formed industry consortium bringing together big names including Nvidia, AMD, Oculus, Valve and Microsoft. So far the consortium is merely announcing its intentions, namely the creation of an "open industry standard" boiling down all VR headsets plugs into a single, thin cable.