ATTENDANCE SYSTEM USING IOT
Gokarna Sharma, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science Kent State University
Kent, Ohio, USA
gsharma2@kent.edu
Ajitesh Vennamaneni, Computer Science Department Kent State University
Kent, Ohio, USA avennama@kent.edu
Samarth Prakash Gowda, Computer Science Department Kent State University
Kent, Ohio, USA sprakas2@kent.edu
Akshay Kumar Kataiah Computer Science Department
Kent State University
Abstract-
Identification has become a major breakthrough in almost all electronic devices. Be it biometric scan, Bar code system, Smart cards innovation moved to new realms such as vein scan, body odor scan and brain waves. While preferring to work on RFID known as Radio Frequency Identification System, being applied to varied areas as diverse as agriculture to high tech hospitality industries. RFID technology facilitates wireless identification using electronic passive and active tags. Attempt to facilitate the project to new depth called IOT was our venture and being successful at it. Applications of RFID to attendance being a motive to automatically collect the attendance for appropriate attendance scores and further improvisational decisions.
Index Terms— RFID, Lecture, Attendance, Tags. I. INTRODUCTION
Conventional method of taking attendance by calling names or signing on paper is very time consuming and insecure, hence inefficient. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based attendance system is one of the solutions to address this problem. This system can be used to take attendance for student in school, college, and university. It can also be used to take attendance for workers in working places. Its ability to uniquely identify each person based on their RFID tag type of ID card make the process of taking the attendance easier, faster and secure as compared to
traditional method. Students only need to place their ID card on the reader and their attendance will be taken immediately.
Reducing the rates of student truancy and chronic absenteeism has been and continues to be an important management goal of every level school system. Attendance not only affects individual students but also can affect the learning environment of an entire school. In general, the managers of school always ask the tutors and teachers to do the education guidance but it is not the best solution for these chronic absenteeism students. In advance, the teachers would give one warning to the absent students by roll call that would spend about 5 to 10 minutes. Therefore, most teachers would not do the roll call every lesson, since it would spend much time. The question which we must consider is the operations of roll call for every class in the university could be charged by every teacher who was quite familiar with this job and spend time in his lesson. In this paper, the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and internet of thing (IOT) technology are implemented at every classroom in the school to assure that every student lesson attendance record is collected by smart attendance system. So on, the academic office will collect every student's attendance at every class on time and help students have good study performance.
Kent,Ohio,USA
akataiah@kent.edu
In this paper, every student must use their student card to swipe and leave on the RFID board. Teacher could easily call every student’s name by watching the RFID board, since all present student cards are there. There is no chance to do the imposture and we have the belief that every student has the better performance.
II. HARDWARE USED
Smart Attendance System made of following components:
A) Hardware Components.
B) Computer Software.
A) Hardware Components:
• Intel Edison with Arduino Breakout
• 12V-2A DC Power Adapter
• Grove – 125KHz RFID Reader
• 125KHz RFID tag
• Jumper Wires
B) Computer Software:
• Yocto complete image
• SSH client
• FTP client
• Intel XDK IOT Edition
• MongoDB
i) Intel Edison with Arduino Breakout:
The Intel® Edison is an ultra-small computing platform that will change the way you look at embedded electronics. Each Edison is packed with a huge amount of tech goodies into a tiny package while still providing the same robust strength of yours go-to single board computer. Powered by the Intel® AtomTM SoC dual-core CPU and including an integrated WIFI, Bluetooth LE, and a 70- pin connector to attach a veritable slew of shield-like “Blocks” which can be stacked on top of each other. It’s low power and small footprint make it ideal for projects that need a lot of processing power, but don’t have the ability to be near a larger
power source or have a large footprint.
ii)
iii)
This kit also includes an Arduino Breakout, which essentially gives your Edison the ability to interface with Arduino shields or any board with the Arduino footprint. Digital pins 0 to 13 (and the adjacent AREF and GND pins), analog inputs 0 to 5, the power header, ICSP header, and the UART port pins (0 and 1) are all in the same locations as on the Arduino Uno R3 (Arduino 1.0 pinout).
Grove – 125KHz RFID Reader
Grove-125KHz RFID Reader is a module used to read uem4100 RFID card information with two output formats: Uart and Wiegand. It has a sensitivity with maximum 7cm sensing distance. There is also the electronic brick version of this module. It can help you with project like internet of thing and access control system.
RFID Tag:
A radio-frequency identification system uses tags, or labels attached the objects to be identified. Two-way radio transmitter- receivers called interrogators or readers send a signal to the tag and read it response.
iv) SSH Client:
• PUTTY is an SSH and telnet client for windows platform.
• It is an open source software that
is available.
• It also has an xterm terminal
emulator.
v) Intel XDK IOT Edition:
• The Intel XDK IOT Edition distributed with the Intel® IOT Developer Kit lets you create and run applications directly on Intel-based IOT platforms.
• For creating new applications, connecting to your IOT device securely, and the option of remotely debugging your application and running it from your own desktop.
vi) MongoDB+Node.js:
• MongoDB is a popular open- source document NoSQL database best suitable with Node.js.
• Run multiple storage engines in a deployment and leverage the same query language, scaling methods and operational tooling across them all to significantly reduce development and operational complexity.
• Streamline development and operations across your organization.
• MongoDB enforces customizable document validation native to the database, allowing you to enforce checks on document structure, data types, data ranges, and the presence of mandatory fields.
III. BACKGROUND
Before the RFID system, smart-card and barcode were more popular for all purpose like supervision, attendance for monitoring student, employees etc. It is
said that the roots of radio frequency identification technology can be traced back to World War II. Germans, Japanese, Americans and British were all using radar, which had been discovered in 1935 by physicist Sir Robert Alexander Watson- Watt—to warn of approaching planes while they were miles away. But the problem there was no way to
identify which planes belonged to the enemy and country’s own pilots returning from a mission.
The Germans discovered that if pilots rolled their planes as they returned to base, it would change the radio signal reflected back. This crude method alerted the radar crew on the ground that these were German planes and not Allied aircraft (this is, essentially, the first passive RFID system).
Mario W. Cardullo was said to have obtained the first U.S. patent for an active RFID tag with rewritable memory in 1973. That same year, a person named Charles Walton, Californian entrepreneur received a patent for passive transponder used to unlock a door without a key. It was a card with an embedded transponder which communicated a signal to a reader near the door. When the reader noticed a valid identity number stored within the RFID tag, the reader unlocked the door. Walton licensed the technology to Schlage, a lock maker, and other companies.
Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) technology is an automatic data capturing technology that identifies labeled or tagged objects wirelessly. System consists of an RFID tag and an RFID tag reader is which relays the information on the tag, in the digital form, to a computer system.
RFID tags can work to multiple feet of querying reader and multiple tags can be read at once. For example, at a grocery store a checkout assistant have to swipe the bar code toward a scanner for them to be scanned, with an RFID tag. Similarly, this technology can be used for people tracking as well as inventory management and anti-counterfeiting.
What exactly is an RFID Tag?
RFID tags are small radio transponders which are attached to objects. These tags are typically made out of two parts: a chip and an antenna. This particular chip can store 2 kilobytes worth of information as such as a serial number, an ID number, date of birth, name etc. Knowing there are two types of RFID tags, active and passive. Passive RFID tags are minimal data transponders that are powered by the radio waves received from a querying RFID reader where these tags are activated by the reader. Now, reader is a device that has one or more antennas that send radio frequency waves to tag and receive signals back from the tag. Then reader passes the information in digital form to a computer system.
There are a few general rules.
1. UHF (860 – 950 MHz) has longer read range,
generally 8 -20 feet, faster read rates and is more commonly used for inventory applications,
2. HF (13.56 MHz) has a shorter read range, generally 4-25 inches, is less susceptible to disruption and is more commonly used for identification and financial transactions,
3. LF (125 – 133 kHz) has the shortest read range, is least susceptible to disruption and is often used for access control and livestock identification
The radio link from RFID tag to RFID reader is the point of departure from your fixed network to your mobile assets. What is really expensive is the lost time and efficiency if this link is not reliable. The value of an RFID deployment is in the ability to access data about specific items easily, in real time. There is no value if the system fails because of inferior tag design and performance.
ISO 14443: This HF standard is used for close proximity tags. These tags are often used for financial transactions (credit cards, transit applications) and identification (passports). The standard allows for secure encrypted communication between the tag and reader.
ISO 15693: This HF standard is used for inventory and general purpose identification. Many library systems use this standard to take advantage of tag interoperability and intermediate read range (3- 25 inches) which fits well with the operating use case of library inventory and sorting equipment.
ISO 18000-(6): This is a worldwide UHF standard used for inventory management. Tags using this standard operate in three distinct frequency bands
• 865 – 868 MHz for communication in the European Union
• 902 – 928 MHz for communication in North and South America, as well as multiple Asian countries
• 950 – 956 MHz for communication in Japan.
Every business is different, the processes vary widely, RFID is an inventory monitoring technology. Properly deployed the technology enables real time monitoring and decision making. For example, a business might use RFID tags on items in an outgoing shipment to automatically trigger an invoice as the shipment leave the dock. In another example a service technician can access the maintenance record of an RFID tagged object, in real time from the data stored in the tags memory.
The U.S. government was also working on RFID systems. In the 1970s, Los Alamos National Laboratory was asked by the Energy Department to develop a system for tracking nuclear materials. A group of scientists came up with the concept of putting a transponder in a truck and readers at the gates of secure facilities. The gate antenna would wake up the transponder in the truck, which would respond with an ID and potentially other data, such as the driver's ID. This system was commercialized in the mid-1980s when the Los Alamos scientists who worked on the project left to form a company to develop automated toll payment systems. These systems have become widely used on roads, bridges and tunnels around the world.
ARCHITECTURE
Fig.1. Attendance System Architecture
Our architecture depicts the working model of attendance system. Where the pupil would scan his RFID tag, which is read by the reader and then saved in to the email gateway using a computer system.
RELATED WORK:
Some of the papers which motivated us for this approach and been as a guideline are “Attendance System using NFC Technology and Embedded Camera Device on Mobile Phone” [1] Using Near- field communication (NFC) as a proof for Student Identification, the problem of attendance is solved in this IEEE paper. NFC tags are used as a unique identification source, since each of the NFC tags will have a different ID. Each student has to use tag for scanning on the mobile of the professor before they enter the classroom. Once the NFC id is taken as input the respective student corresponding to that tag will be marked. Though the system has modern technology
involved but as the name suggest the range is very short. Also since the latest technology is being implement the cost would also come into play.
“A Smart Location Based Time and Attendance Tracking System Using Android Application” [2] In this paper, they have made attendance tracking of employees in and out of the office through smartphones. Using the location based feature provided in the smartphone it is linked to the office server. This usually makes the log-in time and log-out time based on the location tracking of each employee. This is done through installing an apk on the smartphone. The most decisive factor is giving the employer’s workplace area based on which the system would work effectively. Without the workplace area stored in the employee’s smartphone the accuracy of the system would fail. Also each time giving blind authentication based on just the location of the employees would not be of much help.
“The Implementation of Wireless Student Attendance System in an Examination Procedure” [3] In this paper the attendance system is employed using wireless technology and barcodes. Wi-Fi has been a common way of transferring information wirelessly. Barcode represents Data by varying the width and spacing’s of the parallel lines. The data input source is the Card with barcode which recognizes student authentication when swiped. Also Barcode can be only read by barcode readers which can then convert the analog into digital signal. Through this process the data of all the students in an examination would be recorded. Although this would work in an ideal scenario barcodes could be easily replicated and additional equipment’s like barcode reader would be needed for this procedure.
OUR APPROACH:
In our project we implemented our idea based on RFID and Intel Edison Board to provide a smart way of collecting the attendance and to eradicate the manual work for gathering such information using RFID.
We provide each student and employee with a RFID card and they have to scan it to the system provided, where the store the student’s/employee data in the database using mongoDB. To scan the RFID card we first need to extract the unique id of the card and store the data with the student’s/ employee information then we use RFID scanner to scan the RFID cards.
When the RFID scanner scans the RFID card the data is saved in the database, if the user data is un-available to the database then an error message is displayed, hence every unique id information of the RFID cards belonging to each student are stored and this system checks the availability of the unique id. If the user data is available, then the system automatically updates the data and time of entry of the student. This system can be accessed from the browser by any authorized person by entering the Ip-address provided by the host.
IMPLEMENTATION:
For this approach we used Intel Edison with Arduino Breakout kit and a 125khz RFID Reader and few 125khz RFID tags. First we flash our Intel Edison Arduino kit with the latest Yocto complete image.
To communicate with our Arduino board we use putty serial connection where we set our local time in our device so that when a RFID card is scanned the time is stored in our database and we set-up our Wi-Fi connections to the board.
To develop a database application with the help of Edison we use few tools and node.js is one of the important tool for this process. To operate with a database, we use mongoDB and express. With the help of express we auto-generate a simple website where all our tools are called and implemented.
Now we develop our codes to read the RFID cards, to generate a simple user interface webpage, to send the data to the database and display the data present in the database on the webpage.
To upload the developed code into over Edison we use a software tool called WinSCP which uploads the data over Intel Edison using Edison’s ip address.
To use Intel Edison and RFID Reader for implement of our project we need a stable connection between them. The Arduino board is connected to external power source or to the laptop, to run putty using serial connection Arduino must be connected to the laptop. RFID reader is connected to the Arduino board with input as 5-volts, to communicate with Arduino board TX port of RFID reader is connected to RX port of Arduino board and RX port of RFID reader is connected to TX port of Arduino board.
When the connections are made the application is implemented through the Edison. The system is now ready to scan the RFID tags and store in the database.
APPLICATION:
Application is implemented through the Edison after the required connections are made between the Edison and RFID reader. When the application is executed from the Edison the following web page is displayed.
In this webpage the changes made in the database are displayed. The entry time and exit time are displayed in this page. It can be accessed from anywhere using the ip-address of the Edison, to keep the data confidential only authorized people are given the ip address by the host.
The changes are made to the webpage when a student/employee swipes his RFID card to the Reader. This application can be farther developed by using the email address of the student or employee and sending auto-generated mail to them when changes are made in the database.
Conclusion:
The Attendance system using IOT would certainly take-off weight from the tedious work of manual collection of data accumulated on daily basis by
making the attendance system hands-free. This would positively improve the efficiency of the number of students appearing in the class. Some of the other traits might include Automatic and perfect report of student attendance based on the entry and exit time, Monitoring of the Database at any point and also from anywhere. Adding to this would be reduced effort on the administration staff.
FUTURE SCOPE:
RFID has a many possibilities of elevating to levels where the tag might be embedded into smartphones or even human body. Without even having to scan, a simple swipe or a gesture of hand movement is quite enough for the reader to detect. Smart attendance system without being restricted to just attendance taking might as well be useful for traffic monitoring as a parking system etc.
REFERENCE:
[1] Attendance System using NFC Technology and Embedded Camera Device on Mobile Phone
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=& arnumber=6847368
[2] A Smart Location Based Time and Attendance Tracking System Using Android Application
http://airccse.org/journal/ijcseit/papers/5115ijcseit01. pdf
[3] The Implementation of Wireless Student Attendance System in an Examination Procedure
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=& arnumber=5169333&tag=1