With just days to go until October 1st, there is still time to come up with an idea for using the new Intel RealSense technology that could win you $50,000.

You may have noticed news of the  Intel RealSense App Challenge, but not considered entering.

If so think again - this is a chance to get you hands on some cutting edge kit that really does represent the future for apps and devices.

The real incentive to enter this two-stage contest is that 1300 of those who submit an entry in the Ideation Phase will receive the RealSense Developer Kit comprising a state-of-the art camera that sees and hears and the SDK that brings it to life.

As outlined in the article Intel RealSense - What Can YOU Do With It?, it is the combination of the camera's resolution and its SDK that make the platform so powerful. And it is the fact that the next generation of Ultrabooks and tablets will be equipped with this technology that makes it such an attractive proposition to develop apps for.

Intel is really keen to involve developers in devising innovative apps and this is where the Intel RealSense App Challenge comes in.

There are five categories for apps:

The Interact Naturally category is particularly interesting in that this is where you can show off ideas for using the gesture tracking capabilities of the camera and its SDK. And if you are wondering what the "Open Innovation" category is, it is intended as the catch all for any ideas you have that Intel hasn't yet imagined!

Developers from a long list of countries are eligible to participate:

Greece, Italy, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and the United Kingdom - to name but ten of them. All entries have to be in English.

You may think that if you enter this contest you will be up against developers with a lot more experience. That's not the case. Intel has opened two tracks for the contest. There is an elite invitation-only track, the Ambassador track, and the open-to-everyone Pioneer Track, and both groups have October 1st as the deadline for the first phase.

All  you have to at for this stage is come up with an outline idea for an app and fill in a form with its name, which category it fits into, an overview and an explanation how it will use the RealSense SDK. Anything more is optional. Up to 1000 entrants from the Pioneer track will be selected on the basis of this initial submission to go forward to the Development Phase, the start date for which has just been put back to "early December" due to a manufacturing delay for the RealSense Developer Kit as Intel is keen to have all the cameras ship at the same time in order to be fair to the Pioneers moving onto Phase 2. This is rather disappointing as the kit sounds like something we would all like to start playing with as soon as possible.

The cash prizes all come in the Development phase with a $25,000 Grand Prize for the Pioneer track ($50,000 for the Ambassador track). The top scoring Pioneer demo in each of the five categories will be awarded $25,000 with 10 second place awards of $10,000. There are also 50 prizes of $1,000 for demos submitted by the Early Submission Deadline (new date to be announced) rather than the final deadline which has now slipped to mid-February 2015.

What are you waiting for?

 Register now, contact you friends if you want to submit a team entry and start brainstroming for ideas. If you want some inspiration there's a clutch of videos in our previous coverage.

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