If we're honest the majority of new gadgets turning heads across the globe are usually luxurious items not necessarily vital for life enjoyment.
We may prefer one type of high-tech mobile phone over another or favour to carry around a kindle than an actual book but in reality none of these items or services border on the vital.
Thats why when we here at Getminted stumble across a gadget which can actually help to improve people's lives we appreciate it's true value.
Millions of people around the world miss out on the joys of radio because they are hearing impaired.
But a new initiative by National Public Radio, technology firm Harris Corporation and Towson University based in Baltimore, Maryland aims to change that.
At the moment the voice to text conversion has to be done by typists but could one day be automatic.
The information is then broadcast alongside the voice transmission and displayed on a screen on the radio.
The consortium will transmit the first live broadcast at CES using a prototype radio that has a screen large enough to display big swathes of text.
They expect the first commercial radios to be available towards the end of this year in the States.
Then depending on the initial success of these handsets the radios will be available for purchase in Britain though as yet a price for this exciting new product is not known.
