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DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF STUDENT ATTENDANCE AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM. A CASE STUDY OF KEBBI STATE UNIVERSITY

Dept: COMPUTER SCIENCE File: Word(doc) Chapters: 1-5 Views:

Abstract

This preliminary document covers the arrangement phase of a final year BSc (Hons) computer science project aiming to develop a fingerprint recognition application to allow logging of student attendance at lectures. The introduction offers some background to the project and establishes the aims and objectives of the project overall. Following on from the introduction, the literature review presents an account of research material that provides the basis for the project. This material includes a number of texts, journals and research papers as well as additional information sourced from the Web. As drawn from the literature, the subject areas covered include; history and background to modern biometrics; technological, social, organizational and environmental influences; key technologies in the market today; design issues, including security, performance and testing. In chapter 3, attention turns to requirements analysis for the development of a fingerprint recognition system. The

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In the context of information systems, a general definition of a biometric system is that of, “A pattern recognition system that recognises a person by determining the authenticity of a specific physiological and/or behavioural characteristic possessed by that person”,(Davide et al 2003). The earliest documented use of systematic biometric methods as a means to distinguish one individual from another can be traced back to 14

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century China.  Chinese merchants were known to stamp children’s inked palm and footprints on paper in order to tell them apart, (Julian 2004). In western culture, the earliest documented distinction made of a biometric property was that done by the English botanist Nehemiah Grew, who in 1684, published a paper reporting the distinct characteristics of ridge, furrow and pore structures in human fingerprints, (Ibid).In the intervening years the development of formal scientific method, lead to the first significant application of biometrics by Alphonse Bertillon, a 19

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century anthropologist and police clerk.  The system, known as Bertillonage, purported to uniquely identify criminals via head and body measurement and other characteristics, such as scars or tattoos, (Ibid).  Although flawed, Bertillonage helped to establish biometrics as a valid area of scientific enquiry and subsequent pioneers, such as Sir Francis Galton and Edward Henry further advanced the understanding of fingerprint morphology, (Davide et al 2003). Galton identified the “minutiae features” for fingerprint matching and the Henry system of fingerprint classification meant that by the early 20

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century fingerprint recognition had become a standard process in forensics for personal identification, (Ibid).

Throughout the 20

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century, advancements in forensic science would eventually lead to the development of Automatic Fingerprint Identification Systems; (AFIS) which became indispensable to law-enforcement agencies worldwide.  Today, along with the continued development of AFIS applications, the unprecedented growth of information technologies has seen the emergence of a range of other biometric systems with the potential for a broad based application in both government and commercial IT security.

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

Taking attendance on a piece of paper is a cumbersome and boring task encountered by the lecturers in computer science and information technology department of Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero due to the large number of population and  uncertainty of data and nature of student’s hand writing. After an extensive interview with the acting H.O.D Malan Salisu Umar Suru (the project manager) and some other lecturers in the department on the existing way of taking attendance, I discovered the following problems with the method:

• Some student are taking attendance for their friends
• Lecturers are pacing problems while marking attendance due to lack of good handwriting by some students.
• Some lecturers are showing less concern about whether the students are attending classes or not
• The use of paper to keep the record of attendance is becoming too much expensive

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

1. The overall aim of the study is to follow a proper method of requirements engineering and methodical development to model, design and build a fingerprint recognition system in order to allow logging of student attendance at lectures.
2. One of the major objectives of this research is to examine the major biometric technologies of today including, iris, voice, fingerprint, face and hand.
3. Understand the key aspects of these major technologies, relating to the technological and application domain.
4. Another objective of this research is developing a fingerprint recognition application using an object oriented design approach.
5. Investigate the algorithmic structure of such a system and gain insight into how such an application is structured and deployed.
6. Consider the wide-scale deployment of biometric technologies, within the context of the five key aspects, in order to better understand tangible benefits and potential hazards in their use.

1.3 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

In any research scope and limitation is very essential, to determine the extend of the study, if the scope is too broad, the research will not be finished on time and if the scope is too narrow, it may not meet the  user’s needs.

The proposal pay attention on development of students attendance authentication system, it intended to cover only how to enrols and authenticate users, store the fingerprint sample on the store. The system should comply with security standards for data transfer and maintenance and provide the appropriate mechanisms for handling the range of potential errors conditions that could arise as a result of system operation. The system should also maintain and protect the integrity of user data within the context of system failure and recovery. The application should provide acceptable performance standards in terms of response time and authentication reliability.

This project is limited to the development of student attendance authentication system using fingerprint to allow login of student at lectures.