How does the computer system work?

Once could call Beta – by analogy with a word processor – a picture processor. The system is so conceived that the user has no trouble in sorting the pictures in the way they want them to be, in the format of their choice and can add or not text, to finally print the result in colour, grey tones or simply outlines.

1. Three picture books

Beta has 2,800 realistically drawn pictures – in semantic order.

skating

You can leaf through these books and copy prints from them.

2. Look up pictures

You can look up a picture in different ways.
a. by typing in a word
b. by looking up the word in an alphabetical register
c. by wordlessly tracking down the picture via a 20 section tree

This is arranged in such a way that, having chosen the section and a sub-section, you arrive at the series of pictures and the type of word (noun, adjective, verb …) that you were looking for. Here’s an example of a sub-section of the section “vehicles-movement”.

3. Looking up pictures phonetically

The system selects whatever words you wish that include certain sounds or phonemes on a particular spot of the word.

If you are looking for words that start with the sound ‘sh’, the system comes up with all the possibilities.

4. Arranging pictures

Beta has various formats of empty books that can be used to copy pictures:
1 large picture per page
3 smaller pictures per page
2 x 4 pictures
or 3 x 6 pictures
or free format
It’s very simple to paste the pictures that you require onto the pages to make, for example an exercise, a communication card or a picture letter.

Example of an association exercise in 2 x 4 format

Should you wish the pictures to be arranged otherwise, or the number or size to be different, the “print book” is the ideal solution. You can fill up this book with pictures of whichever format you desire. Moreover, you can slide the pictures, enlarge or reduce them. . You can also add text to them in every format or style in Windows.

5. Scanning

All the pictures in the books can be scanned.

6. Hardware

What are the system requirements for Beta?

• Intel Pentium processor (or compatible) 500 MHz
• Supported Operating Systems
  - Windows XP SP2 or higher
  - Windows Vista
• 256 MB or more recommended
• 150 MB or more free hard disk space.
• Graphics card that is capable of displaying 800 x 600 pixels resolution with 16-bit color or greater (1024 x 768 recommended).

The more powerful the system on which it runs the more pleasant it is to use.