Smart Attendance and Monitoring System (SAMS)

Recording Student or employee attendance and monitoring each of them is not an easy task, it's always tedious and time-consuming. There are some other system which follows different technologies like Thumbprint, NFC, RFID etc which are expensive and not suitable as they cannot broadcast real-time si

Project Title

Smart Attendance and Monitoring System (SAMS)

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

Recording Student or employee attendance and monitoring each of them is not an easy task, it's always tedious and time-consuming. There are some other system which follows different technologies like Thumbprint, NFC, RFID etc which are expensive and not suitable as they cannot broadcast real-time signal. To resolve this issue, we introduce SAMS which automates the attendance/ monitoring process seamlessly.

The attendance and monitoring process is completely automatic: no action is required from students/ employees/ professors/ staff. SAMS is an integrated hardware and software system and based Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and MEAN (MongoDB, Express, AngularJS, nodeJS) stack. Hardware includes student/ employee ID card and a scanning device known as a gateway device. Both ID cards and gateway devices have BLE interface to communicate with each other. BLE is state of the art technology that’s supported by Billions of devices (smartphones, sensors, gateways, wearable devices, etc.) and also supported natively in modern operating systems Linux, iOS, Andrioid, and Windows.  Software includes user interface, attendance/ monitoring database and gateway software and they are programmed in MEAN stack.

Gateway devices are installed at places wherever attendance/ monitoring required, e.g. class rooms, canteens, offices, entry/ exit gates, etc. Each student/ employee ID card periodically transmits a radio signal in iBeacon format that can be detected by a gateway device once in a range. The range of a signal depends upon transmitted power and can reach up to 100 meter or more. When a student/ an employee enters in a class room/ office the gateway device, installed in each class room/ office, automatically detects student/ employee presence. The gateway device is programmed to periodically detect the presence of students/ employees at a particular place on the premises. All gateway devices are connected to a remote database server and periodically upload attendance/ monitor data.

FIG: Each class in the department of a University is equipped with Gateway Device (SD) that periodically detects student/ employee presence.

TRACKING information can be used to improve students’/ employees’ performance or better utilize human resource.

The beauty of SAMS is that it does not require any action to be performed by students/ employees/ professors/ teachers for attendance and monitoring., unlike other solutions, e.g. NFC, RFID, biometric.

Project Objectives

Smart Attendance and Monitoring System (SAMS) is based on state of the art Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) also known as Bluetooth Smart. There are three main goals of Smart Attendance and Monitoring System (SAMS):

1. Fully automatic attendance process.
2. To monitor how students/ employees spend their time on the premises.(enter/exit time, check performance etc)
3. Analyze attendance/ monitor data to improve students/ employees performance

SAMS has the ability to measure time spent by each student/ employee at a particular place (classroom, office, etc.). The monitoring feature of SAMS is very useful for parents to learn about their kids’ schedule when they are in University/ College/ School time. For example, parents can check entrance/ exit time of their kids to/ from University/ College/ School. Depending on the requirement of Office/ University/ College/ School the monitoring feature can be fine-tuned. For example, SAMS can measure how much time students/ employees spend in a cafeteria, office, laboratory, etc analyze the data and able do improve the performnces of student where needed. 

Project Implementation Method

How SAMS works:

Gateway devices are installed at places wherever attendance/ monitoring required, e.g. class rooms, entry/ exit gates, etc. Each student/ employee ID card periodically transmits a radio signal in iBeacon format that can be detected by a gateway device once in a range. The range of a signal depends upon transmitted power and can reach up to 100 meter or more. When a student/ an employee enters in a class room/ office the gateway device, installed in each class room/ office, automatically detects student/ employee presence. The gateway device is programmed to periodically detect the presence of students/ employees at a particular place on the premises. All gateway devices are connected to a remote database server and periodically upload attendance/ monitor data.

IDC: Student/ Employee ID card

BLE N/W: IDC and gateway device communicate using Bluetooth Low Energy interface

Client: Web application for administrator/ staff/ student/ employee.

Implentation 

Each particular place (class room, office, etc.) is equipped with one or more gateway devices. All gateway devices upload data to online server. Each student/ employee ID card (IDC) periodically advertises its presence using BLE advertising packets. A nearby gateway device which is constantly looking for BLE advertising packets captures BLE advertising packets and records them in its own database. Each BLE advertising packet is differentiated by UUID, Major, and Minor combinations. In fact, advertising data in advertising packet follows iBeacon. Each student/ employee ID card is assigned a unique combination of UUID, Major, and Minor.

Once gateway device has detected advertising packets it can pre-process them, e.g. attaching a timestamp, generating a JSON formatted file, filtering data, etc. The middleware layer (pre-processing) on the gateway can be used to reduce amount of traffic to online server.

We can choose Raspberry pi 3 for gateway device. The gateway software and middleware layers, running on a gateway,  are programmed in Express framework. The communication between online server and gateway is secured using https protocol.

The online server receives data and updates attendance/ monitoring database. It stores student/ employee profiles, room allocation, etc. The online server maps student/ ID card number (UUID, Major, and Minor) to student/ employee profiles. It also exposes RESTful API so that web/ hybrid application can be built upon it. The Gateway device and client application are both behind firewalls, so neither can make a direct connection to the other. The online server is used as an intermediary.

Client application is a web that provides an interface for administrator/ staff/ student/ employee to interact with SAMS. Web application that runs in a browser on all type of devices (laptops, desktops, smart phones, etc.) Web application will be built using bootstrap framework, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Benefits of the Project

Fully automatic attendance process.(based on real time signals)

TRACKING (information can be used to improve students’/ employees’ performance or better utilize human resource.)

Hassle Free Workflow Management (SAMS provide good visibility of all data and can ease the workflow)

Accuracy (SAMS ensure accurate time records and minimize the inevitable and costly)

Visibility (graphical representation)

New Skill and Human Resource Development

Industry, innovation and infrastructure (“without technology and innovation, industrialization will not happen, and without industrialization, development will not happen)

SAMS also provide data integrity, security, tracking, safe time, real time, easy to use, efficient, and flexible environment.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

SAMS is an integrated system comprising of both hardware and software.

TECHICAL DETAILS

1. Designing a gateway software( BLE) that can periodically scan student/ employee ID cards in iBeacon format. 
2. Designing a middleware for communicating with gateway devices and attendance database server, by using node.JS, Express, and AngularJS programming languages.
3. Design SQL/ No-SQL database that holds all information about SAMS: student/ employee profiles, subject records, etc. SAMS exposes databases using RESTful API.
4. Web application/ user interface for administrators, employee or students with varying access rights.

SAMS will provide following products/ services to customers:

• Student/  employee ID cards
• Gateway device
• Gateway Software
• Attendance/ monitoring database
• Web application

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Type of Industry

Education , IT

Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT), Wearables and Implantables

Sustainable Development Goals

Quality Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com