Abstract—The cardinal aim of this study to report an automated student attendance system modeled and developed for use at a Vocational school. This paper focuses on developing an application by using a QR code. This system enables us to speed up the process of taking attendance and would save us valuable teaching time. This is planned to help students avoid consequences that may result from poor attendances which will eventually penalized them from sitting their final examination as required by the administrators. Keywords—QR code, Reed Solomon,error correction code, system design. I. INTRODUCTION Punctuality and regular attendance are the prerequisites that are commonly imposed in most schools. They are connected to emerging character behaviors such as initiative, respect, integrity and responsibility. Many established studies have shown that student attendance during lectures have positive correlations with their academic performances (Westerman et al., 2011; Dobkin et al., 2010; Chau and Kuo, 2012; Lin, 2011). Students determine commitment, initiative, respect and responsibility when they are in class and on time, at all times. The less class time students miss or absent, the more likely they will do well academically. The traditional and normal way of taking attendance is by using pen and paper manually which is seemed as unproductive, repetitive and tedious processes. This mode of taking attendance will incur time lost instead of delivering lecture effectively especially if the population of a class is big. As new technology rapidly evolves, there are various ways of capturing students’ attendances. The widespread uses of smartphones at an unprecedented rate have revolutionized the way people access to information particularly in the education sector. There are various technologies available that enable and assist educators to streamline their attendance taking activities. A few available solutions are hardware incline such asusingradio frequency identification (Abdulkareem et al., 2014), biometrics (Shoewu et al., 2014; Dey et al., 2014; Alia et al., 2013), software based solutions for attendance management (Kumbhar et al, 2014; Al-Shammari, 2012) or both using software and hardware (Lokhande et al., 2013; Reda et al., 2011). Mohd Noah A. Rahman is with the UniversitiTeknologi Brunei,Bandar Seri Begawan, BE 1410,Brunei Darussalam (phone: 673-246-1020; fax: 673- 246-1035; (e-mail: noah.rahman@ utb.edu.bn). Afzaal H. Seyal is with the UniversitiTeknologi Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan, BE 1410,Brunei Darussalam (phone: 673-246-1020; fax: 673-246- 1035;( e-mail: afzaal.seyal@uitb.edu.bn). Md Rizal Md Hendrywas with the UniversitiTeknologi Brunei. In this project, the proposed attendance system is developed by scanning the QR code using a webcam attached to a computer. Subsequently the data is recorded and deposited in a database for further retrieval and reporting purposes. The Reed Solomon error code correction is applied to determine the authenticity of the code scanned through the webcam. A report is produced and submitted to the administrator. If there exists a penalty in case attendance percentages fall below 85% set in the school’s policy, a warning letter will be issued to the student. The presentation of this paper is organized in the following sequences. A related background study is compiled and discussed. Next, a detailed system design and workflow is proposed. Subsequently a discussion on the findings is portrayed and finally a conclusion is drawn. II. RELATED BACKGROUND STUDY There exist various modes of attendance system applications being used in various situations such as in schools and higher institutions of learning. The most notable changes in most educational landscape today are the capitalization of technology in managing the attendance of students (Gomis- Porqueras et al., 2011). A Learning Management Systems (LMS) proposed the use of real time face detection algorithms which automatically detects and registers student attending the class (Shehu and Dika, 2010). A system which uses fingerprint verification technique was proposed by applying a technique known as extraction of minutiae which automates the process of attendance taking (Saraswat and Kumar, 2010). A prototype system which uses facial recognition and detection technology combining with a neural network algorithm was developed to perform face detection and an eigenface method to perform facial recognition was implemented (Xiao and Yang, 2009). Another study which confirmed the presence of a student attending a class was developed using a mobile phone via a Bluetooth connection. It will further query the existence of the student through the transfer of student’s Media Access Control (MAC) address to the instructor’s mobile phone (Jamil, 2011). A few studies were conducted on the use of QR code for attendance systems (Deugo, 2015; Baban, 2014; Masalha and Hirzallah, 2014; Singh and Munukoti, 2013). III. RESEARCH APPROACH As presented in Fig. 1 below, this project focuses on developing a prototype to perform the basic function of Smart Attendance System Applying QR Code Md Rizal Md Hendry, Mohd Noah A. Rahman and Afzaal. H. Seyal 12th International Conference on Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology (ICLTET'2017) May 22-24, 2017 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) https://doi.org/10.15242/IIE.E0517002 1