Efficient Mobile-Driven Automated Attendance System Employing Biometric Authentication for University Employees

Abstract

Institutions of learning have followed the lead of other organizations as attendance management has evolved from manual register entry system to high-tech solutions; these solutions have had to find a way to switch from handwritten lists of attendance to digital storage. The manual list processing was cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone, so novel ways of maintaining attendance while also solving problems of inaccuracy, security, and accessibility had to be sought. To this end, several technologies were developed, but the expense of many current systems, their lack of portability, and the lack of comprehensive leave management has left a real need for a solution that addressed more aspects of the problem. This paper presents a new way to manage attendance in educational institutions through a Mobile Application-based Biometric Attendance System. The System offers an innovative method to use mobile phones, biometrics, and a cloud-based database to simplify taking attendance. The System is designed to be a low-cost, highly-performing, easy-to-implement solution for managing attendance of students, faculty and other staff in educational institutions. This mobile application empowers students and staff to either take attendance themselves using biometric authentication or use traditional Location Information Services (LBS) functionality available in any GSM network-connected location using Google Maps or any Open Source platform. Intelligent Systems, ZigBee, Communication, Fieldbus, and new hardware platforms offer a number of interesting applications settings to solve both industrial and educational problems.