12th International Conference on Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology (ICLTET'2017) May 22-24, 2017 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Smart Attendance System Applying QR Code

Md Rizal Md Hendry, Mohd Noah A. Rahman and Afzaal. H. Seyal

 In this project, the proposed attendance system is developed

Abstract—The cardinal aim of this study to report an automated by scanning the QR code using a webcam attached to a
student attendance system modeled and developed for use at a computer. Subsequently the data is recorded and deposited in
Vocational school. This paper focuses on developing an application a database for further retrieval and reporting purposes. The
by using a QR code. This system enables us to speed up the process Reed Solomon error code correction is applied to determine
of taking attendance and would save us valuable teaching time. This
is planned to help students avoid consequences that may result from the authenticity of the code scanned through the webcam. A
poor attendances which will eventually penalized them from sitting report is produced and submitted to the administrator. If there
their final examination as required by the administrators. exists a penalty in case attendance percentages fall below 85%
set in the school’s policy, a warning letter will be issued to the
Keywords—QR code, Reed Solomon,error correction code, student.
system design. The presentation of this paper is organized in the following
sequences. A related background study is compiled and
I. INTRODUCTION discussed. Next, a detailed system design and workflow is
Punctuality and regular attendance are the prerequisites that proposed. Subsequently a discussion on the findings is
are commonly imposed in most schools. They are connected portrayed and finally a conclusion is drawn.
to emerging character behaviors such as initiative, respect,
integrity and responsibility. Many established studies have II. RELATED BACKGROUND STUDY
shown that student attendance during lectures have positive There exist various modes of attendance system
correlations with their academic performances (Westerman et applications being used in various situations such as in schools
al., 2011; Dobkin et al., 2010; Chau and Kuo, 2012; Lin, and higher institutions of learning. The most notable changes
2011). Students determine commitment, initiative, respect and in most educational landscape today are the capitalization of
responsibility when they are in class and on time, at all times. technology in managing the attendance of students (Gomis-
The less class time students miss or absent, the more likely Porqueras et al., 2011).
they will do well academically. A Learning Management Systems (LMS) proposed the use
The traditional and normal way of taking attendance is by of real time face detection algorithms which automatically
using pen and paper manually which is seemed as detects and registers student attending the class (Shehu and
unproductive, repetitive and tedious processes. This mode of Dika, 2010).
taking attendance will incur time lost instead of delivering A system which uses fingerprint verification technique was
lecture effectively especially if the population of a class is big. proposed by applying a technique known as extraction of
As new technology rapidly evolves, there are various ways minutiae which automates the process of attendance taking
of capturing students’ attendances. The widespread uses of (Saraswat and Kumar, 2010).
smartphones at an unprecedented rate have revolutionized the A prototype system which uses facial recognition and
way people access to information particularly in the education detection technology combining with a neural network
sector. There are various technologies available that enable algorithm was developed to perform face detection and an
and assist educators to streamline their attendance taking eigenface method to perform facial recognition was
activities. A few available solutions are hardware incline such implemented (Xiao and Yang, 2009).
asusingradio frequency identification (Abdulkareem et al., Another study which confirmed the presence of a student
2014), biometrics (Shoewu et al., 2014; Dey et al., 2014; Alia attending a class was developed using a mobile phone via a
et al., 2013), software based solutions for attendance Bluetooth connection. It will further query the existence of the
management (Kumbhar et al, 2014; Al-Shammari, 2012) or student through the transfer of student’s Media Access Control
both using software and hardware (Lokhande et al., 2013; (MAC) address to the instructor’s mobile phone (Jamil, 2011).
Reda et al., 2011). A few studies were conducted on the use of QR code for
attendance systems (Deugo, 2015; Baban, 2014; Masalha and
Mohd Noah A. Rahman is with the UniversitiTeknologi Brunei,Bandar
Seri Begawan, BE 1410,Brunei Darussalam (phone: 673-246-1020; fax: 673-
Hirzallah, 2014; Singh and Munukoti, 2013).
246-1035; (e-mail: noah.rahman@ utb.edu.bn).
Afzaal H. Seyal is with the UniversitiTeknologi Brunei, Bandar Seri III. RESEARCH APPROACH
Begawan, BE 1410,Brunei Darussalam (phone: 673-246-1020; fax: 673-246-
1035;( e-mail: [email protected]). As presented in Fig. 1 below, this project focuses on
Md Rizal Md Hendrywas with the UniversitiTeknologi Brunei. developing a prototype to perform the basic function of

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 12th International Conference on Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology (ICLTET'2017) May 22-24, 2017 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

inserting, retrieving and deleting information, scanning QR QR code therefore that it then also holds the original data
code, viewing and producing reports. expressed as a polynomial.
There are four error correction levels used for QR codes as
depicted in Table 1.
TABLE I
QR CODE ERROR CORRECTION LEVEL
Error Correction Level Damage (%)
Level 1 7
Level 2 15
Level 3 25
Level 4 30
C. Masking
This process is used to avoid features in the symbol where
that can be might confuse a scanner, such as misrepresentative
shapes that looks the locator patterns and large blank areas.
Masking overturns certain modules of white becomes black
and black becomes white, whereas parting others alone.

Fig. 1 Overall architecture of an attendance system

A. Quick Response (QR) Code
A (QR) code is a two dimensional code used to record
thousands of characters and numbers in a small image created
by Denso-Wave Corporation of Japan in 1994. The QR code is
arranged in columns and rows of black and white colours
Fig. 2 Masking transformation
designed to be read by smartphone users (Shin et al., 2012).
Users utilize the QR code can simply use the software decode The masking transformation is easily applied or removes
built-in into the applications to convert scanned code images using the exclusive-or operation. The unmasking of the format
into the coded information and save it into the database information is shown below. Reading counter-clockwise
(Ohbuchi et al., 2004). around the upper-left locator pattern, we have the following
B. Reed Solomon Error Correction Code (ECC) sequence of bits. The white modules representa 0 and the
Regardless of the design of the two-dimensional barcode, black modules represent a 1 as a binary coded representation.
there will be errors. The image of the barcode may be
damaged or unclear. In other words, the barcode obtained Input 101101101001011
from scanning differs from the original. Therefore, it is Mask ^ 101010000010010
essential to be able to detect and correct errors which may Output 000111101011001
occur.
The error correction which is widely used is Reed-Solomon IV. SYSTEM DESIGN
code. This is because it is easier to encode than other encoding A. System Flowchart
techniques and the error correction code is small. Moreover, The system flowchart as shown in Fig. 3 clearly
error detection and error correction can be performed quickly demonstrates the process flow from the beginning of the
and efficiently.It allows correct reading even the bar code is application until the repository of data resided in the database.
damaged a lot. The reason is when the bar code scanner This software development technique and methodology still
cannot recognize a bar code symbol, it will consider as an remains as one of the preferred technique used among
erasure. software developers (Rahim et al, 1998a; Rahim et al,1998b)
Part of the strength of QR codes in the physical Once registration is done, users then begin to login to the
environment is their ability to withstand damage and remain to system. Thereafter, the scanning of QR code will proceed.
function even when a part of the QR code image is disguised, After the scanning process is completed, the information is
vandalized or indifferent. submitted by using the copy clipboard procedure and pasted
This is accomplished by using the Reed-Solomon Error on the insert form. Consequently, the data is stored in the
Correction Code algorithm where several serious algebra that database which has a profound benefit and ease of use
occurs in the background when the QR code is created. The (Rahman et al., 2004). This database is currently stored in a
inventive data in the QR code is converted into a polynomial WAMP server.
and number of unique points required to uniquely describe that
polynomial is resolute, and the point set is added back into the

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 12th International Conference on Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology (ICLTET'2017) May 22-24, 2017 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

V. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
Open Application
This attendance system requires minimum hardware
specification of Intel Pentium Dual core i5 with RAM size of
2GB and minimum hard disk capacity of 500 Gb.An
additional device of an Android smartphone with camera
equipment
Register Y First Time The required software used for development process of the
QR codes scan and Web based program requires an operating
N
system Microsoft Windows 7 or Server with 64 bit. A web
basedWAMP server (PHP, MySQL & Apache) with an
Log in the system
additional QR code scanner application.
The welcome page comes with five options as iconized in
Fig. 5.

Take Attendance

Scan QR Code

Send information
to Server

Fig.5 Welcome page

Store to
database The scanning process of the QR codes is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 3 Flowchart
B. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
The ERDensures all the entities, relationships and the
required attributes for the attendance system are available as
depicted in Fig. 4. The ERD diagram has been widely used in
most structured analysis and conceptual modeling because the
approach is easy to understand, powerful to model real-world
problems and it is readily translated into a database schema
Song et al., 1995).
S.Name
Teacher.id

Student id Subject
Teacher
Month
Status Sems

Attendance
Fig.6 Scanning process
teaches

Belongs The Reed Solomon ECC will detect errors and corrected
Studied

Subject
them if available by producing the masking techniques as
Student
mentioned. This is shown in Fig. 7.
S.Code

S.Name Semester
Teacher.id Student id

Course
Name

Fig. 4 Entity-Relationship Diagram

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 12th International Conference on Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology (ICLTET'2017) May 22-24, 2017 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

manually and minimized paper usage.

In future, we will provide an efficient algorithm to be
developed as a networked version without the need to install
the open source scanning application scanner.

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