Microsoft offering reaschers $500,000 for building Hololens apps

Microsoft is offering $500,000 to researchers and developers who would build apps for its Hololens headset.

The company has called for academic research proposals on projects that would make use of its virtual reality specs.

"The primary goal of this request for proposals is to better understand the role and possible applications for holographic computing in society," Microsoft said while announcing the project.

"Additional goals are to stimulate and advance academic research in mixed reality and encourage applications of holograms for novel purposes."

Winners would receive one of five $100,000 grants to work on Microsoft's research project. Winners would also receive a pair of Hololens headsets.

According to Microsoft, the funding would only carry on for one year, after which the projects would raise their own funds.

Proposals would be accepted only until 5 September and any submissions would have to come from accredited universities or non-profit research institutes within the US.

Hololens, which was unveiled earlier this year, is Microsoft's answer to the likes of Google Glass and Oculus Rift. Unlike pure virtual reality headsets, Hololens does not render an entire image on the headset, rather it puts pictures onto a clear display, showing 3D images within the normal field of vision.

According to commentators, Microsoft had big plans in store for its upcoming augmented reality device that went beyond video games and Minecraft.

It intends to make it much more than an entertainment device, and was turning to academia to help researchers show how the device could be used for business-related applications.

Hololens had generated much hype for Microsoft and chief Satya Nadella had strongly backed the company's investment in the technology.  Nadella told The New York Times in May that Hololens was one of the reasons behind Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, the parent company of the hit virtual world-building game Minecraft, for $2.5 billion (See: Microsoft to acquire Minecraft maker Mojang: reports).

However, the overall augmented reality market went beyond just gaming, as Digi-Capital managing director Tim Merel explained to Fortune in June.

According to Merel his tech advisory firm did not expect video games to be the ''primary driver for HoloLens'' as the augmented reality market would touch $120 billion by 2020. Rather, he saw business cases driving the growth of HoloLens.