International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064 Volume 2 Issue 10, October 2013 www.ijsr.net Fingerprint Based Student Attendance System Using GSM Pallavi Verma 1 Namit Gupta 2 1 M.E. (student) Embedded system & VLSI design, SVITS, Indore (M.P.), India 2 Prof. & Head of Dept., Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, SVITS, Indore (M.P.), India Abstract: In this paper provides the design method of portable fingerprint based student attendance system using GSM. The system includes terminal fingerprint acquisition module and attendance module. It can realize automatically such functions as information acquisition of fingerprint, processing, wireless transmission, fingerprint matching and making an attendance report. After taking the attendance, this system sends the attendance of every student to their parent’s mobile through GSM. Attendance system facilitates access to the attendance of a particular student in a particular class. This system eliminates the need for stationary materials and personnel for the keeping of records. Keywords: Fingerprint identification, Attendance System, Wireless communication 1. Introduction The most common means of tracking student attendance in the classroom is by enforcing the students to manually sign the attendance sheet, which is normally passed around the classroom while the lecturer is conducting the lecture. There are numerous disadvantages of using such system. The attendance sheet is passed around the class; some students may accidentally or purposely sign another student's name. Another issue of having the attendance record in a hardcopy form is that a lecturer may lose the attendance sheet. As a consequence of that, lecturer can no longer trace the students overall attendance record throughout the particular semester. Currently, the magnetic card attendance system is widely used [1]. This pattern is flexible and practical. But it has also some disadvantages. For example, the card is easy to lost and damage. And most of all, parents are not aware if their children are absent from the class. Aiming at the disadvantages of traditional attendance system, a design method of wireless fingerprint attendance system based on GSM technology is proposed. In this system students report their attendance via biometric system and parents can receive SMS notification of attendance [2]. The fingerprint has a lot of advantages, such as unique, permanent, good anti-fake and easy to use. So it is recognized increasingly by people [3]. Figure 1 shows the general architecture of a biometric system [4]. Biometrics systems work by recording and comparing biometric characteristics. When an individual first uses a biometric system, their identifying features are enrolled as a reference for future comparison. This reference may be stored in a central database or on a card (or both) depending on the needs of the application. When biometric recognition is required, the individual’s biometric characteristics are recorded again. This time however, the identifying features are compared by the system with the stored reference to determine if there is a close match. Figure 1: General biometric system GSM is the Global System for Mobile Communications. It is called 2G or Second Generation technology. It is developed to make use of same subscriber units or mobile phone terminals throughout the world. A unique feature of GSM, not found in older analog systems, is the Short Message Service (SMS). SMS is a bidirectional service for short alphanumeric (up to 160 bytes) messages. Messages are transported in a store-and-forward fashion. For point-to-point SMS, a message can be sent to another subscriber to the service, and an acknowledgement of receipt is provided to the sender. SMS can also be used in a cell-broadcast mode, for sending messages such as traffic updates or news updates. Messages can also be stored in the SIM card for later retrieval. 2. System Structure The system consists of fingerprint acquisition module and a GSM modem. Fingerprint acquisition module is used for capturing the fingerprint and pre-treatment. GSM modem is used to send the attendance of the students to their parents in the form of SMS. 3. System Hardware Design The system hardware includes: fingerprint acquisition module, GSM modem, microcontroller, RTC, EEPROM, MAX-232, and LCD. 3.1 System Block Diagram Figure 2 shows the block diagram of the fingerprint based student attendance system. Attendance is marked after Paper ID: 09101311 128