CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION
In many institutions, and academic organizations, attendance is a very important criteria which is
used for various purposes. These purposes include record keeping, assessment of students, and
promotion of optimal and consistent attendance in class. In developing countries, a minimum
percentage of class attendance is required in most institutions and this policy has not been adhered to,
because of the various challenges the present method of taking attendance presents.
It is a well-known fact that virtually all organizations whether commercial or educational need to
properly record the attendance of its employees or students for effective functioning, planning, and
management of the organization. In most academic institutions in developing countries, attendance is
usually taken manually using paper sheets and the old file system approach by calling students’ name.

1.2 BACKGROUNG OF STUDY

It is a well-known fact that virtually all organizations whether commercial or educational need to
properly record the attendance of its employees or students for effective functioning, planning, and
management of the organization. In most academic institutions in developing countries, attendance is
usually taken manually using paper sheets and the old file system approach by calling students name.
According to (Tabassam, et al., 2009) it becomes cumbersome for the management to regularly update
the records and manually calculate the percentage of classes attended for the purpose of examinations
and subsequent results processing. The attendance management system has indeed degenerated to a
great level, especially in Nigerian institutions. Many academic institutions are beginning to update their
standards by issuing students with identification cards that are equipped with barcodes, ID chips, radio
frequency identification (RFID) tags, and so on (Andrew, 2011). This decision opens up a window to
drive innovative solutions to solve many of the problems faced by lecturers and the institutions’
management in classroom attendance management. Due to the inefficiency of traditional methods of
attendance record keeping, a secure and accurate radio frequency identification based model is proposed
in this project report. This report not only suggests a consideration, but puts forward a model design and
implementation, whose functionality is examined under stringent edge cases. Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) is one of the automatic identification technologies in vogue nowadays. RFID is a
wireless technology, which uses radio waves to identify a tagged object, animal or person. In a typical
RFID system, a reader is required to scan a tag. The system consists of a scanning antenna, a transceiver
and a transponder. The scanning antenna and transceiver make up the RFID reader while the tag
contains the transponder. These systems have found vast application some of which include; inventory
management and control, vehicle tracking, pet tracking, shipping, tap-and-go credit card payments, etc.
The types of RFID systems based on the read range are; low frequency, high frequency, ultra-high
frequency and microwave RFID system, and the type of system adopted depends on the specific
application and read range required. Radio Frequency Identification dates back to the 1940s; however,
commercial applications were first developed in the 1970s and have become more accessible in recent
years following the decrease in hardware costs.
1.3 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The currently used system of taking attendance consumes time. It is stressful as lecturers have to verify
if the number of students that marked attendance tallies with the number of students in the classroom.
Furthermore, lecturers have to compute the marks to be allocated based on the number of times a student
is present.
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this project is to develop a Student Attendance Recording System using RFID tags and
Arduino.
The aim of this project is to develop an attendance management system using RFID technology and
basic student, lecturer and course data, and a corresponding database. The objectives are therefore as
follows:
1. To identify and obtain relevant student, lecturer and course data
2. To design an arduino RFID based attendance system equipped with temporary data storage and
Ethernet module for database access via LAN
3. To implement and optimize the system designed in (2) above.
4. To calculate and allocate scores to the students based on the number of times the student is present

1.5 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Matric no: A unique number in which students have to identify themselves Identity
Tags: A tag which is given to students to show identity
Barcode: a unique code it could be 1 dimensional or 2 dimensional used for different people
Scanner: A device that’s used to scan the barcode in order to get what one wants to achieve.
Absence: This is an employee’s basic right not to show up at work for reasons covered by law Absence
Management: This is a basic employee’s right enshrined in labor laws and subject to the rules therein.
Access Control: this refers to hardware and software systems for monitoring the entry and exits of workers
and visitors at the entrance points of the organization’s premises and sites, where access is allowed only
to authorized personnel.
Activity based costing: Activity-based costing, or labor costing, refers to the labor distribution and job
allocation for a specific task.
Attendance: The traditional definition of attendance refers to the time an employee is present at the
workplace. A broader definition refers to the employee time devoted to work, whether physically at the
workplace or at an off-site location (meetings outside the office, working from home in accordance with
flexible working arrangements, etc.).
Attendance reporting: Collection of data tracking employees working time and attendance, and its transfer to
the Attendance system, are intended to determine the employee’s entitlement to payment of wages in
accordance with his employment contract, collective agreements, and labor laws. There are various
options for data collection and reporting time and attendance data such as: time clock, access control,
biometric readers, online attendance reporting, smart phone/phone-based attendance reporting.
Attendance software: Attendance software is a computer system that analyzes and calculates attendance,
absences, overtime, etc., according to the employee’s employment agreement, collective agreements,
and the labor laws.
Attendance system: The Attendance system, also known as the Time & Attendance system, is a software
system that collects data on the attendance of every employee in the organization, analyzes and
calculates the hours worked absences, overtime, etc., according to the worker’s employment agreement,
collective agreements and labor regulations.
 CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In the current system, Strathmore use a manual method of capturing student attendance details by making
each student to write their names and also sign against the names written on a sheet of paper. Students not
enrolled in the current system were made to enter their details in a separate sheet of paper.
The current system makes it difficult for lecturers to know the specific number of student(s) who miss
classes or students who are late to classes. The proposed system will enable the lecturers know the
number of students who miss classes and those who came to class late.
2.2 STUDIES CONDUCTED
In a study titled: “RFID-Based Students Attendance Management System”, Arulogun O. T., Olatunbosun,
A., Fakolujo O. A., and Olaniyi, O. M (2013) made an attempt to solve recurrent lecture attendance
monitoring problem in developing countries using RFID technology. The application of RFID to student
attendance monitoring as developed and deployed in this study is capable of eliminating time wasted
during manual collection of attendance and an opportunity for the educational administrators to capture
face-to-face classroom statistics for allocation of appropriate attendance scores and for further managerial
decisions.
Limitations:
 Every good engineering design innovation has limitations. This passive RFID based lecture
attendance monitoring system is not without limitation as a data collection technology with accurate
and timely data entry.
 Replacing the microchip, radio transceiver, antenna, and battery in the system is tiresome and costs
money

Conclusion: As the RFID technology evolves, more sophisticated applications will use the capability of
RFID to receive, store and forward data to a remote sink source. We hope that this system can shift the
paradigm of students’ lecture attendance monitoring in face-face classroom and provide a new, accurate,
and less cumbersome way of taking student attendance in Nigerian Higher Institutions.
Development of Attendance Management System using Biometrics. O. Shoewu, Ph.D. and O.A. Idowu
(2012), [Link]. 1 1 Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Lagos State University, Epe
Campus, Nigeria. 2 Department of Electrical and Electronics, University of Benin, Edo State, Nigeria.
Objective: In this paper, the development of an attendance management system using biometrics is
proposed. Managing student attendance during lecture periods has become a difficult challenge. The
ability to compute the attendance percentage becomes a major task as manual computation produces
errors, and also wastes a lot of time. For the stated reason, an efficient attendance management system
using biometrics is designed. This system takes attendance electronically with the help of a finger print
device and the records of the attendance are stored in a database.
 Attendance is marked after student identification. For student identification, a biometric (fingerprint)
identification based system is used. This process however, eliminates the need for stationary materials
and personnel for the keeping of records. Eighty candidates were used to test the system and success rate
of 94% was recorded. The manual attendance system average execution time for eighty students was
17.83 seconds while it was 3.79 seconds for the automatic attendance management system using
biometrics. The results showed improved performance over manual attendance management system.
Attendance is marked after student identification.
Limitation:
 Lack of student finger prints reduced the usability
 Finger print machines keep malfunctioning
 System was not able to give proper report after recording
Conclusion: The system successfully took the attendance both at lectures and examinations. The
prototype successfully captured new fingerprints to be stored in the database; scanned fingerprints
placed on the device sensor and compared them against those stored in the database successfully. The
performance of the system was acceptable and would be considered for full implementation especially
because of its short execution time and reports generation. Everyone who tested the system was pleased
and interested in the product being developed for use in schools.
Bluetooth Based Attendance Management System Vishal Bhalla Department of Computer Science And
Engineering Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon, Haryana, India Tapodhan Singla (2013)
Department of Computer Science And Engineering Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon,
Haryana, India Ankit Gahlot Department of Computer Science And Engineering Dronacharya College
of Engineering,Gurgaon,Haryana,India Vijay Gupta Department of Computer Science And Engineering
Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Objective: The reason of the development of biometric system is to take student attendance more
efficiently. This method uses the student’s matrix card to track student’s attendance and sent
information to the computer and the computer will send data to a mobile phone lecturer. The listing of
students will be automatic, quicker and more security intensive than current methods of registration.
Limitation:
 The system tags get easily malfunctioned
 The system requires power to function properly
 The Bluetooth range is limited
Conclusion: We covered almost all the technologies in the Bluetooth attendance system and conclude
that with the advancement of this technology and with the increasing demands of the people new
procedures are been developed. It will be really beneficial for the students as well as the professors of
the respective universities and colleges as with the advancement of this technology they can utilize their
lectures in a best manner. Therefore, we can conclude that in future, we can consider Bluetooth
attendance tech system as a good option in near future to meet the growing requirements of the
generation in effective manner.
 Attendance Management System for Industrial Worker using Finger Print Scanner Md. Shakilα &
Rabindra Nath Nandi (2013)
Objective: The main objective of this paper is to develop an attendance management system for the
industrial worker by using fingerprint scanner so that workers of the industry does not get any
opportunity to give fake attendance. The top management of the industry can always get the update
information of their attendance. Another objective is to ensure the efficiency of this system by
comparing this attendance management system with the manual system and it’s important to ensure that
proposed system will provide more efficiently than the manual system.
Limitation:
 One of the potential problems with fingerprint attendance systems is that they can produce false
positives. It means that an employee might be marked as present even though a few are absent. It can
happen if the fingerprint reader isn’t working properly or an employee’s fingerprint isn’t registered
correctly.
 If you need to change an employee’s clock-in or clock-out time, it can be challenging to do so with a
fingerprint attendance system. You might need to delete the employee’s fingerprint and re-enroll them
in the design, which can be time-consuming
Conclusion: For developing countries like Bangladesh, people working in industries and garment
factories are not enough educated and conscious about their attendance. Also they have no direct
communication with the Admin or top management authorities of the industry. So an attendance
management system providing this privilege is crying need for nowadays.
Wireless attendance management system based on iris recognition Seifedine Kadry and Mohamad
Smaili (2010) Faculty of Science, Lebanese University, Lebanon.
Objective: Iris recognition verification is one of the most reliable personal identification methods in
Biometrics. With the rapid development of iris recognition verification, a number of its applications
have been proposed until now including time attendance system etc. In this paper, a wireless iris
recognition attendance management system is designed and implemented using Daugman’s algorithm
(Daugman, 2003). This system based biometrics and wireless technique solves the problem of spurious
attendance and the trouble of laying the corresponding network. It can make the users’ attendances more
easily and effectively.
Limitations:
 The System is expensive because a lot of technology goes into making it
 In case of a large strength of students, purchasing tags for everyone is costly
 Replacing the microchip, radio transceiver, antenna, and battery in the system is tiresome and costs
money
 Since it is not as secure as biometric, the system is prone to manipulation
Conclusion: This paper describes a techniques used in an iris recognition verifying system and wireless
transmission as well as an implement of such a system by means of a wireless iris recognition
attendance management system. This system possesses the functions of iris recognition verifying,
checking on attendances independently, and wireless communication and so on. The performance of this
system meets the needs of daily attendance management in various enterprises and institutions. It has
good market prospects. While the rapid development of chip and computer technologies, many new
methods should be used in such system e.g. RFID technology and other biometrics technologies like
retinal verifying to enhance the reliability of recognition and adopt new wireless technologies like GPRS
to solve the problem of the bad quality transmission channel and so on.
Bluetooth Smart based Attendance Management System Riya Lodhaa , Suruchi Guptaa , Harshil Jaina ,
Harish Narulaa a D. J. Sanghvi (2015) College of Engineering, Mumbai-400014, India.
Objective: Bluetooth Smart is a wireless technology aimed at innovative applications in the healthcare,
fitness, beacons, security, and home entertainment industries. The technology makes use of electronic
tags to facilitate automatic wireless identification, with a Bluetooth Smart enabled device. We are
attempting to solve the problem of attendance monitoring using a Bluetooth Smart based system in this
paper. This application of Bluetooth Smart to student attendance improves the time taken during manual
attendance and human errors and provides administrators the statistics of attendance scores for use in
further managerial decisions.
Limitation: Valuable lecture time is dedicated to attendance taking and sometimes it is inaccurate. It is
time-consuming and laborious. Besides, the process being manual, it is very prone to personal errors.
Making this problem automated through the use of Bluetooth Smart technology makes it more efficient
and effective. Bluetooth Smart technology can be used since it is an automated identification and data
collection technology. It is accurate and ensures timely entry of data. It come into existence only
recently, but has tremendous future scope due to its low cost and compatibility with a large number of
mobile phones, tablets and computers.
Conclusion: In this paper, we have discussed an automated attendance recording system that utilizes the
capabilities of Bluetooth Smart technology. The major advantages of a Bluetooth Smart based system
are: Low power consumption, High data transfer rate, Small size of chips and low cost, Simple
implementation of Bluetooth Smart based wireless sensors as Bluetooth Smart technology evolves,
sophisticated applications in a variety of fields like healthcare, inventory management and sports can
make use of this technology to design simpler, cheaper and more efficient solutions.
Attendance Management System Using Barcode Identification on Students’ Identity Cards. Y.K.
Saheed, Ph.D. Moshood A. Hambali, [Link].2 ; Abdulmumeen A. Adedeji, [Link].1 and I.A. Adeniji,
[Link].3 (2016) Department of Physical Sciences, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin-Nigeria. Department of
Computer Science, Federal University, Wukari-Nigeria. Department of Computer Science, University of
Ilorin, Ilorin-Nigeria
Objective: All academic institutions have certain criteria for students regarding their attendance in class
and examinations. The importance of student attendance in class cannot be over emphasized, as a result
of this, administrators and lecturers of various academic institutions are concerned with the attendance
irregularities. In the process of admitting students into an examination hall in most Nigerian institutions,
70% of attendance must be met and also considered for grade computation, therefore there is a huge
need for monitoring and recording students’ attendance. This brings about the need to have a tool to
control students’ attendance. The existing model of manual attendance monitoring (using paper sheets
and an old file system) is not efficient and it is also time consuming. These aforementioned
shortcomings among others serve as justification for migrating from manual based to the proposed
system. The system is based on barcode reader technology and the details of this system are presented in
this paper. The system can be easily accessed by the lecturers and most importantly, the reports can be
generated in real-time processing, thus, providing valuable information about the students.
Limitation: One of the most prominent areas where classroom practices of individual faculty members
differ is on the issue of attendance policies. Some faculty members require attendance, some faculty
count attendance positively in grade determination, while others count the lack of attendance against the
student's grade. Even most faculty who don't require attendance by their students, encourage attendance
in a variety of ways. Fundamentally, most faculty members probably believe that attendance is
significant in student success but most of us can provide only anecdotal evidence to support our belief.
The existing system is a manual entry for the students. Here the attendance will be recorded in hand
written registers. It usually is a tedious job to maintain the records for the users. The retrieval of the
information is not as easy as the records are maintained in the hand written registers
Conclusion: Computerizing classroom attendance tracking has many advantages over the old system.
Data from classrooms can easily be transformed into databases for possible later analyses or usages.
This may help in improving the design of timetables and classroom reservation decisions. A major
disadvantage, however, is maintaining the software program of the system. The goal of this work was to
test and evaluate a real-time, system using barcode on student’s ID card. The results from the tests that
were conducted on the system collectively show that the system design is suitable for technological
challenges that require real-time solutions. Furthermore, the success of these tests left no doubt that
barcode solutions are easy to implement, inexpensive in terms of cost, and effective in terms of
reliability and efficiency. A minor concern, however, might be in the area of maintenance.
A Students Attendance System Using QR Code by Fadi Masalha (2014) Faculty of Information
Technology Applied Science University Nael Hirzallah Faculty of Information Technology Applied
Science University
Objective: Smartphones are becoming more preferred companions to users than desktops or notebooks.
Knowing that smartphones are most popular with users at the age around 26, using smartphones to
speed up the process of taking attendance by university instructors would save lecturing time and hence
enhance the educational process. This paper proposes a system that is based on a QR code, which is
being displayed for students during or at the beginning of each lecture. The students will need to scan
the code in order to confirm their attendance. The paper explains the high level implementation details
of the proposed system. It also discusses how the system verifies student identity to eliminate false
registrations.
Limitations: Taking students’ attendance by university instructors during each class is a time consuming
process especially when classes are big. Some faculty policies require this task to be performed by the
instructor in each lecture. In other words, out of the total hours that is assigned to a given course, which
is typically forty-five hours per semester, up to eight hours may be lost to perform this process that
usually takes around ten minutes per lecture. Statistics in [1] shows that 42% of Smartphone users have
an average age of 26 years old. Thus, with the widespread of Smartphone’s among university students,
this paper addresses the problem of such a waste in the lecture time and proposes a system that offers to
reduce it by almost 90%. The proposed solution offers a QR code for the students to scan it via a
specific Smartphone application. The code along with the student identity taken by the application will
confirm the students’ attendance.
Conclusion: These days it is required to keep up with the latest technologies, especially in the field of
education. Educational institutions have been looking for ways to enhance the educational process using
 the latest technologies. Looking at the existing situation, we have thought of using the mobile
technology to efficiently benefit from the complete assigned time assigned to a lecture. Time taken by
instructors to take attendance may be viewed sometimes as a waste of the lecture time, especially when
classes are big. For that, we have proposed a way to automate this process using the students’ devices
rather than the instructor’s device. In other words, the instructor need not do anything extra during the
class beyond presenting the slides of the subject to be taught to the students. The proposed system
allows fraud detection based on the GPS locations as well as the facial images taken for each student.
Attendance Management by Using Barcode and Raspberry PI Kanishk Srivastava, Vaibhav Joshi,
Narayan Rawat (2016)
Objective: The main objective of this setup is to make a system that can count the attendance of the
gathering present at a given place. For this only the attendants have to carry a barcoded ID which has to
be scanned. As counting of attendance especially when the number is greater than a hundred is usually
cumbersome and time consuming. The ID issued to the attendants will be scanned by a barcode reader
installed at the entrance of the hall where the attendance has to be counted. A microcomputer attached to
this reader will maintain a list of all the scanned specimens and will store the data in its memory. Also
the microcomputer can be programmed to mail this list to a server so that a record can be maintained if
the attendance is taken on a regular basis, along with the duration of the lecture. This process will
eliminate the case of fake attendances and will give the time of class only for studying rather than
wasting it for attendance.
Limitation: In many institutions and organization the attendance is very important factor for keeping
track of the regularity of people in the institution. Earlier used method of attendance took a lot of time
and effort just to report a few people. Now if we imagine there is a large crowd then this old process of
manually taking attendance would waste a significant amount of time and human effort. Due to these
issues we develop an automatic attendance system which automates the whole process of taking
attendance and maintaining it. Usually biometric techniques for verification are used to record
attendance like retina scan, fingerprint, DNA recognition etc.
Conclusion: The conclusion that can be drawn from the above is that for attendance management
barcode scanning can prove to be one of the most efficient and time saving with a very low cost. The
Artificial Intelligence present in the system will make it an intelligent system as compared to the present
ones.
2.3 PLATFORMS REQUIRED FOR THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
2.3.1 Hardware consideration
For proposed system to be implemented, one will need a computer, a barcode reader or a Smartphone.
The computer to be used need to be connected to the internet because it is a web based application. In
the whole of an Africa, according to (Internet World Stats, 2018) Kenya has 43,329,434 internet users
with a population penetration of 85% which makes Kenya the most connected country in Africa.
2.3.2 Software considerations
Current smart phones have been embedded with mega-pixel range image sensors cameras. The cameras
can also be used to capture barcode details using various kind of application like Get Blue and TWedge.
TWedge is a universal data acquisition software that enables you to capture data from barcode readers
and scanner (TEC-IT, 2018). GetBlue is an android application that establishes a connection between
 the computer and the mobile device. The data collected by camera scanner is send to the computer using
GetBlue application (TEC-IT, 2018).
2.4 RELATED APPLICATIONS TO THE ATTENDANCE MANAGEMET SYSTEM
2.4.1 Embedded Computer-Based Lecture Attendance Management System
This system uses electronic cards like magnetic cards and smart cards. Electronic cards include a
package having vertical and horizontal dimensions of a standard credit card and including first and
second opposing faces (Techopedia, n.d.). The smart cards contain the student identity which includes
the ID-Name, the Matriculation Number and a five-pin encrypted code.
Student ID cards authenticated by the card reader which compares the entrance code with the encrypted
code on the card swiped through the card reader (O. Shoewu, 2014). The student is then granted or
denied specific lecture attendance based on the result of the comparison by the backend software system
running on the PC to which the card reader is serially interfaced.
2.4.2 Wireless Fingerprint Based College Attendance System Using Zigbee Technology
This system involves the use of fingerprint technology to for attendance marking of students. A
fingerprint is made up of a series of ridges and furrows on the surface of the finger (Attendance, 2013).
The uniqueness of a fingerprint is determined by the ridges and furrows. Fingerprints are different from
one another. Even identifical has different fingerprints which makes fingerprint ideal for identification.
The attendance system is implemented in a class room. Database contains the fingerprint templates of
students. The system used fingerprint recognition criteria so proxiew cannot be given. The attendance
marking would be done at any place and time because the system was spread over a wide network from
classrooms using the internet.
2.5 PROPOSED SYSTEM
The proposed system will be a wall mounted device, consisting of an arduino UNO, RFID reader, SD
card module, Ethernet module and supporting components, and would require both students and
lecturers to have unique tags.
Generally using ID tags has a lot of advantages. One advantage is that it helps to fill in class attendance
details very fast as compared to using the current system which involves using paper sheet.
The proposed system is also cost effective, as computers will not be required in any aspect of its
operation. At the start of each class, the wall mounted device will require the lecturer to begin the
attendance by using his/her tag. Afterwards, students will be able to fill their attendance by
 CHAPTER 3

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND` METHODOLOGY

3.0 Methodology

This section deals with the methodology adopted for the study and analysis of the present system. The
methodology adopted for this project is the Rapid Application Development Model (RAD). The RAD
model is based on prototyping and iterative model with no specific planning. The RAD approach to a
software development means putting lesser emphasis on planning tasks and more emphasis on
development and coming up with a prototype. The RAD basically puts focus on prototyping, which acts as
an alternative to design specifications. This means that the RAD works well wherever there’s a greater
focus on user interface rather than non-GUI programs
3.1 Prototyping

Fig. 3.1 Prototyping

3.1.1 Stages of prototyping

Requirement Analysis

Requirement analysis involves gathering and understanding the very basic requirements needed
for developing the produce. The requirements will be acquired through user interaction with the
customer.
Design

The design phase is implemented when the requirements are already known. The design phase
helps in specifying hardware and system requirements and helps in defining the overall system
architecture.
Design Building and Prototyping

In this phase, user interfaces are provided. This gives same look and feel to the customer in what
will be exactly product.
Evaluation by Customer

This phase involves taking the developed prototype to the customer and the other stake holders
in the project. The customers will evaluate the prototype and give feedback to the system
developer.
Refining Prototype

Refining prototype phase involves having discussions on the feedback and comments gotten
from the customer and having some negotiations with the customer on the time and cost
constraints. The changes accepted are again incorporated in the new prototype. The cycle repeats
until customer expectations are met.
Final Product

After repeating the design, design building and prototyping, evaluation by customer and refining
prototype steps, the product is finally developed which meets the customer’s expectations.
Justification for using Prototyping Model

The advantage of using prototypes is that it heavily involves the user the users and the system
developer discuss what features which might be required and they plan based on those
discussions. After the discussion, a rapid prototype is created which the user will interact with so
that the user can provide feedback to the system developer.
3.2 RADTechniques

There are important techniques that are used in the RAD which are:

1. Business modelling: the information flow is identified between different business

functions.
2. Data modeling: information collected from business modeling is used to define data
objects that are required for the business.
3. Process modeling: data objects defined in data modeling are converted to establish the
business information flow to achieve some specific business objective process description
for adding, deleting, modifying data objects that are given.
4. Application generation: the actual system is created and coding is done by automation
tools. This converts the overall concepts, process and related information into actual
desired output. This output is called a prototype as its still half-baked.
5. Testing and turnover: the overall testing cycle time is reduced in the RAD model as the
[Link],theoverallflowof
 Information, user interfaces and other program interface, and coaxial between these
interfaces and the rest of data flow need to be tested as acceptance process. Since most of
the programming components have already been tested, it reduces the risk of any critical
issue.
3.2.1 Objectives of RAD

RAD was developed with the following objectives:

1. RAD has successfully achieved the objective of reducing costs on project whilst not
compromising on quality by effective reducing the project time-frame and the number of
people involved in such project.
2. RAD has also demonstrated strength in being able to speed up the development process
by appropriately fusing its methodology, people, management and high tech computer
Aided tools.

3.2.2 Benefits of RAD

1. Requirements can be changed at anytime.

2. Reviews are quick.

3. Development time is drastically reduced.

4. More productivity with fewer people.

5. Time between prototypes and iterations is short.

3.3 Feasibility Study

Feasibility study is to check the viability of the project under consideration. Theoretically
various types of feasibilities are conducted but we have conducted three types of feasibility
as explained below:
3.3.1 Technical Feasibility

In this aspect, a test was carried out to see if the existing technology can be used to develop
[Link] feasible
because the proposed system is intended to be designed and implemented using an arduino
and simple Google sheets database, which both have supporting documentation and active
communities
3.3.2 Economic Feasibility

To determine if the proposed system is economically feasible, the cost of designing and
implementing the proposed system was compared to the benefit that will be derived by
implementing the proposed system. The outcome of this showed that the proposed system is
economically feasible.
3.3.3 Operational feasibility

In this aspect, a test was carried out as to how often the proposed system will be functional
and also how easy it will be for the users of the proposed system. The end result of this test
showed that the proposed system is operationally feasible because it aids user experience by
implementing usage process follow-up, the device also has a temporary local storage for
cases of network failure, and the data is uploaded once the network is restored.
3.4 Problem of the existing system

The weakness of the present system includes the following:

1. It needs highly skilled developers.

2. It cannot work with large teams.

3. It needs user requirement throughout the life cycle of the project.

4. It is only suitable for projects which have small development time.

3.5 Use Case Diagram

Login

Create Lecturer Account

Login
Administratorr Create Student Account

Create unit
<<extend>>
Assign unit to
Lecture
<<include>>
View Assigned Lecturer
login unit

Studentt Enroll Unit Create Lesson

tt

<<include>>
View Student Attendance
<<extend>>
Fill attendance
(swipe ID)

Fig 3.5 Use case Diagram

In the use case diagram we see that the administrator logs into the system can choose to create
Lecturer account or student account, or even create unit. After units are created assigns it to the
lecturer in charge.
From the lecturers end he/she login views assigned unit, creates lesson and views students
attendance.
From the students views they login enroll units, and then swipe their identity cards for attendance.

3.6 System Flowchart

Start Login Student? Admin

Student Course Student Report

Verify S
tudent Staff Attendance

Attendance Data View Update Report

Report

Stop

Fig 3.6 System Flowchart.

The flowchart states how the processes of staffs and the students. The staff or students login.
If staff it directs you to the admin page where one will see options of Course, Student,
Report.
If course/student is clicked upon it then displays the Data, View, Update. After this
a report is there by generated and the process can therefore be terminated if one has
completed what he/she is carrying out. If the report is clicked upon it displays
students, staff, and attendance. After one is through he/she should log out or end
the process. If it is a student the student is required to verify his/her identity in
order to proceed. After that the student is required to scan his/her barcode in order
to record attendance into the system. After that is done the student can there for
logout.
3.7 System Implementation Methods and Tools

The Student attendance management system used Xampp application package

which allows developers to develop web applications. The package comes with
Apache server, and MySQL database.
Apache server is an open source HTTP server (“Purchase: A case study of
open source software development: the Apache server,” n.d.) that processes
incoming network requests over the HTTP protocol. MySQL is an opensource
database management system that allows the user to save large amounts of data to a
data base. The backend is PHP, the programming language used on the front end
was HTML, JavaScript and CSS. HTML is a standard mark- up language that will
be used to create web pages. PHP is a programming language that can be used to
connect to My SQL database and manipulate the database. CSS is a style sheet
language that deals with how HTML elements are going to be displayed on the
[Link] will be used to make your webpage look more attractive.
 CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
4.1 Choice of Development Tools
The development tools are the necessary requirement tools used during the design to enable us
achieve the system design. The listed packages were used because of their features, accessibility
and also because it is more effective.
1. C++
2. LCD
3. RFID module
4. SD card module
5. Real-Time clock module
6. Arduino UNO
7. Breadboard
8. Jumper wires
4.1.1 C++
The two fundamental parts of the C++ programming language are a direct translation of
hardware characteristics, mostly from the C subset, and zero-overhead abstractions built on top
of those mappings. According to Stroustrup, C++ is "a lightweight abstraction programming
language [built] for developing and utilising efficient and elegant abstractions; the foundation of
C++ offers both hardware access and abstraction." Its ability to be performed effectively sets it
apart from other languages. The two fundamental parts of the C++ programming language are a
direct translation of hardware characteristics, mostly from the C subset, and zero-overhead
abstractions built on top of those mappings. According to Stroustrup, C++ is "a lightweight
abstraction programming language [built] for developing and utilizing efficient and elegant
abstractions; the foundation of C++ offers both hardware access and abstraction." Being effective
in it is what makes it unique compared to other languages.
4.1.2 LCD
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is a type of flat panel display which uses liquid crystals in its
primary form of operation. LEDs have a large and varying set of use cases for consumers and
businesses, as they can be commonly found in smart phones, televisions, computer monitors and
instrument panels.
LCDs were a big leap in terms of the technology they replaced, which include light-emitting
diode (LED) and gas-plasma displays. LCDs allowed displays to be much thinner than cathode
ray tube (CRT) technology. LCDs consume much less power than LED and gas-display displays
because they work on the principle of blocking light rather than emitting it. Where an LED emits
light, the liquid crystals in an LCD produces an image using a backlight.
As LCDs have replaced older display technologies, LCDs have begun being replaced by new
display technologies such as OLEDs.
[Link] How LCDs work
A display is made up of millions of pixels. The quality of a display commonly refers to the
number of pixels; for example, a 4K display is made up of 3840 x2160 or 4096x2160 pixels. A
pixel is made up of three subpixels; a red, blue and green—commonly called RGB. When the
subpixels in a pixel change color combination, a different color can be produced. With all the
pixels on a display working together, the display can make millions of different colors. When the
pixels are rapidly switched on and off, a picture is created.
The way a pixel is controlled is different in each type of display; CRT, LED, LCD and newer
types of displays all control pixels differently. In short, LCDs are lit by a backlight, and pixels
are switched on and off electronically while using liquid crystals to rotate polarized light. A
polarizing glass filter is placed in front and behind all the pixels, the front filter is placed at 90
degrees. In between both filters are the liquid crystals, which can be electronically switched on
and off.
LCDs are made with either a passive matrix or an active-matrix display grid. The active-matrix
LCD is also known as a thin film transistor (TFT) display. The passive matrix LCD has a grid of
conductors with pixels located at each intersection in the grid. A current is sent across two
conductors on the grid to control the light for any pixel. An active matrix has a transistor located
at each pixel intersection, requiring less current to control the luminance of a pixel. For this
reason, the current in an active-matrix display can be switched on and off more frequently,
improving the screen refresh time.
Some passive matrix LCD's have dual scanning, meaning that they scan the grid twice with
current in the same time that it took for one scan in the original technology. However, active
matrix is still a superior technology out of the two.
[Link] Types of LCDs
Types of LCDs include:
 Twisted Nematic (TN)- which are inexpensive while having high response times.
However, TN displays have low contrast ratios, viewing angles and color contrasts.
 In Panel Switching displays (IPS Panels)- which boast much better contrast ratios,
viewing angles and color contrast when compared to TN LCDs.
 Vertical Alignment Panels (VA Panels)- which are seen as a medium quality between TN
and IPS displays.
 Advanced Fringe Field Switching (AFFS)- which is a top performer compared IPS
displays in color reproduction range.

4.1.3 RFID module

The term RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, as the name defines the operation
of the device is based on the Radio frequency signals. The RFID systems consists of RFID
Reader and a tag which is normally used in identification and tracking of objects. Before
discussing more about the RFID, let’s see the uniqueness of this technology and its general
application. Today in most cases barcodes are used for identifying an item in a warehouse or a
supermarket using a barcode scanner, this existing system can be upgraded with the RFID
technology. Similar to barcode the RFID can also give unique identification number to all
products but the added advantage is unlike the barcode system’s line of sight, this system can
detect the RFID tag within its proximity range. Meaning you do not need a human to search for
the barcode and point the barcode scanner on it. With this feature most of the system can be
automated and human intervention can be minimized because the tag can be scanned and billed
automatically when it reaches the RFID reader. RFID door locks and RFID attendance
system are very popular now days and many hotels provide RFID tag to their customer to lock
and unlock the door.
4.1.4 SD card module
The SD and micro-SD card modules allow you to communicate with the memory card and write
or read the information on them. The module interfaces in the SPI protocol.
To use these modules with Arduino you need the SD library. This library is installed on the
Arduino application by default. The SD card module is especially useful for projects that require
data logging. The Arduino can create a file in an SD card to write and save data using the SD
library. There are different models from different suppliers, but they all work in a similar way,
using the SPI communication protocol.

4.1.5 Real-Time module

The clock module is a small board usually containing one of the DS1307, DS1302, DS3231
chips. Such boards are often used to keep track of time, date, day of the week and other
chronometric parameters. The modules work from an autonomous power supply – batteries,
rechargeable batteries, and continue counting even if the Arduino has lost power. The most
common clock models are the DS1302, DS1307, DS3231. They have based on an RTC (real-
time clock) module connected to the Arduino.
The clock counts in units that are convenient for the average person – minutes, hours, days of the
week, and others, unlike conventional counters and clock oscillators that read “ticks”. The
Arduino has a special function millis(), which can also read different time intervals. But the main
disadvantage of this function is that it resets to zero when the timer is on. It only reads the time.
You can’t set the date or day of the week. The real-time clock modules are used to solve this
[Link] electronic circuit includes a chip, a power supply, a quartz resonator and resistors.
The quartz resonator operates at 32768 Hz, which is a convenient frequency for a conventional
binary counter. The DS3231 circuitry has built-in quartz and thermal stabilization that allow for
high accuracy values.
4.2 System Requirements
4.2.1 Software Requirements
 System makes use of the Arduino system.
 Data can be view on a windows XP or higher versions of operating system
4.2.2 Hardware Requirements
The software designed needed the following hardware for an effective operation of the newly
designed system.
 1. Pentium IV system or any higher version
2. At least 256MB of RAM
3. Keyboard
4. 20GB hard disk space
5. Mouse
6. SD card reader

4.3 Input/output Specifications

4.3.1 Output Specification and Design
Output from the system is in form of documents. Majority of the outputs caries information
relating to database driven online industrial training fund application payment management
system, the outputs are presented in a text format and some of the information derived from the
database.

4.4 System Implementation

System implementation is a collection of inter-dependent physical devices together with their
programming which provides the functionality and performance for which the system was
designed. It covers all the activities necessary to set the system that has been analyzed and
designed to be fully functional to the users.

4.5 Testing
4.5.1 Unit testing
Developing a good and logically sound test plan is very vital to developing a bug free software
system. The unit test plan developed for the testing of this application is as follows:
4.5.2 System Test
This software has been tested with data and it is functioning well. This was done through the use
of properly selected input data; ensure reliability and accuracy of output. The test data consists of
formulated customer’s personal details and car details. The respective user names and passwords,
pin were used to login to the database, error message was displayed if the user name and
password and pin are incorrect. All these varying data used in testing the system’s performance,
gives the assurance that the new system will achieve its purpose and objectives.
4.6 Integration
The general deployment process consists of several interacted activities with possible transitions
between them. The integration would be performed using visual web developer under the visual
studios code package. This entails a web server where users can access the site using an internet
explorer of their choice
CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary
The main Objective of the project was to develop a web-based attendance management system.
The system was to implement a barcode code reader that reads barcodes on student Identification
cards. The barcodes used would be captured using a barcode reader and stored in a database to
mark that a student attended class.
5.2 Conclusion
The experience acquired from this project cannot be over-emphasized. It has really bridged the
gap between classroom paper work and practical work involved in software development.
Furthermore, this project portal is still open for further studies and modifications to increase its
security and efficiency.
5.3 Recommendations
The student attendance management system using barcode identification should be hosted in an
online and secure web server. The system also requires an environment with good internet
connections which will enable sending and retrieving of data from database within a short period
of time.