https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKpKlh1-en0
Microsoft has issued a request for proposals for its HoloLens virtual reality glasses, including applications for healthcare such as medical education, psychology and data visualization tools. It plans to invest up to $500,000 across five ideas.
The goal is partly to stimulate academic research into its glasses.
Some companies and developers have already articulated plans for these devices covering human-computer interaction and first-responder emergency management. One of the things that people like about HoloLens is that it produces realistic holograms because it tricks the brain into seeing light as matter.
Microsoft envisions plenty of healthcare applications for its smart glasses, as a blog on its website illustrated earlier this year. In addition to medical education (like the Case Western Reserve University use case highlighted in the YouTube video), it sees the virtual reality function as a useful way to give patients struggling to understand a newly diagnosed condition an unconventional view of the problem. Personalized prosthetics are also a possibility, using the hologram to customize prostheses.
Microsoft will allocate funding for the ideas it picks directly to the university where the submissions ideas came from.
In a statement, Microsoft noted that the awards are designed to support seed-funding of larger initiatives, proofs of concept, or demonstrations of feasibility. It emphasizes that funding won’t likely continue beyond the first year.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Principal investigators who are granted the Microsoft HoloLens Research Awards should therefore make every effort to use the award as one component of a diverse funding base in a larger or longer-running project,” the statement read.
The funding will go to accredited, degree-granting universities with a non-profit status or a research institution with non-profit status. Universities and institutions will also receive two HoloLens development kits.
Submissions to the program can be made here through September 5 until 11:30 pm eastern time.
Photo: Flickr User Microsoft
