It’s very unlikely that Windows 8 will see the implementation of 3D technologies, especially as it’s due out of the door in only two and a half years, but the next big thing, at least according to everyone who’s got a vested interest in making money from it, could have some extremely useful repercussions for the desktop.

Now I’d like to set aside for a moment the two things that you know already, that a true three-dimensional desktop space is something PC users have been longing for now for many years, and that it would also make gaming, especially first-person online shooters something absolutely amazing.

What I’d like to talk about are the potential health benefits.  I know, you’re now wondering why I glossed over the gaming in order to go off on the tangent of the decade… how could 3D possibly be good for your health!?  I’ll come back to the gaming in a little bit but hear me out first.

The sheer number of people who suffer from headaches and other medical conditions each year because of the thousands of hours we all spend staring at computer screens, might just have a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel now (if you’ll excuse the pun), at least if 3D is done right.

At the moment there are issues about 3D movies themselves giving you headaches, with people not able to watch something for too long before the backs of their eyes begin to warm up and eventually explode (slight exaggeration there for dramatic purpose).

Dozens of companies are now working to either find glasses that don’t do this, or to develop screens where you don’t need glasses at all.  But these glasses can have tremendous positive benefits on their own, potentially screening out the bright lights and radiation that give you a headache in the first place.  Wearing 3D glasses at your computer all day might make you look silly, but it could also make it much more pleasurable to sit there.

But there’s a hope that whatever format wins the 3D war will ultimately do so partly because of the health benefits.  There’s a very good chance this will happen too because the medical downsides of watching 3D are well documented, and high on the agendas of developers.  Mix this with the effects of, essentially wearing thick dark glasses, and bingo, everyone’s happy.

Back to gaming, because I know this is really what you want to talk about, this would also be the technology that further drives the graphics market forward and gives all those multi-stream processors in PCIx cards we all keep reading about, a proper job to do rather than just blowing smoke (it’s pun central here today).  But the health benefits here are even more tremendous when you think about it, as gamers are much more likely to stare intently at a screen for a long period of time as someone browsing the web or compiling a spreadsheet.

So, no matter how pointless I might personally think the whole concept of 3D is, in the real world the health benefits of the technology could be well worth looking a bit silly for.