I'm trying to plan a School Attendance System for my school but I need to know whether it is feasible or not. I also need advice on the equipment that I should use.
In my school, we are still using a barcode attendance system wherein a barcode is printed on our IDs. One of the problems in this approach is that sometimes, it causes a long line of students while entering the school gates. I would like to improve this system by allowing the students to just pass by the gate and the system would scan something from their ID. I am thinking of RFID or beacons. What would be the advantages of using one over the other on this system? The factors that I would need to consider are:
Cost - because students will pay for them
Battery - a typical student lasts 4 years in our school
Embeddability - can it be embedded on our current ID or is it a separate tag?
Sensor - is it scannable even if it is inside the student's bag? what about inside the pocket?
I think it's pretty hard... Here (university event) they build something like this to automate the time tracking of a relay run. It uses RFID tags and gates with "long range" readers. RFID is okay because you don't need something active. You don't want a lot a transmitters transmitting all the time. That would make things terrible. But the hard part is, find/build long range readers. And even thou it works fine here it's still problematic it two people try to go though the same gate at the same time...
So all in all, I think the bar cod approach is not that bad. You only need more scanners...
Or do as the good old days, let the teacher count heads....
With a RFID system, you would still need a time between readings as even if your ID is scanned by placing on a reader, it will take similar time as barcode reader. If long distance reader there will need to be a space between students so only one is read at a time.
I am fascinated by what this ID system does, since bar codes are perfectly easy to replicate (I routinely use extra copies of my loyalty card codes - just the barcode) and in fact, IDs are easily photo-shopped and laminated.
Presumably there is an attendant verifying the barcode ID on a monitor against the student's face, or else it would be entirely meaningless.
danieljohngomez:
In my school, we are still using a barcode attendance system wherein a barcode is printed on our IDs. One of the problems in this approach is that sometimes, it causes a long line of students while entering the school gates.
Gated schools?
Is that a school where prisoners learn, so they cannot run away during school hours?
What sort of a country is that, where schools are gated?
I've heard about countries where people like it very much to live in "gated communities", so before entering their homes they have to pass a security control and a gate. I think "Saudi Arabia" and "USA" are such countries where people like living behind security controlled gates. In most other countries, people just live in houses with a door which has a door lock.
And schools are public buildings in most countries: The doors are opened by the facility manager before school hours, and they are locked after school hours. As easy as that.
But gated schools? Strange!
BTW: Short range RFID tags (cheap tags in the size of a credit card or different shaped keychain tags) work without a battery and can easily be read from a distance of 10 cm (4 inches) in many cases. Same as with a barcode reader: Only the reader device needs a power supply, but not the RFID tag.
weedpharma:
The barcode is a tattoo on the forehead. :o :o
Or maybe the barcode is the photo of somebody else's barcode, displayed on a smartphone display.
UHF RFID can be read from longer distances and much faster, the problem with UHF is that you have to shield the reader so no other students tags are read. Or the scanner has to be focused in a way (I don't know if that is possible).
At the y they have gone from a palm scanner with keypad to a bar code on a little label that attaches to your car keys. When you get your bar code they take also take a picture of you. When you use the bar code reader at the entrance turn style, your photo displays on a monitor where they can check if you match the photo taken of you.
Yes. To keep intruders out and to keep the smaller children in, for their own safety.
Unless you'd like the school open to any and every paedophile or 5 year-olds to run out onto a busy road.
Don't they care about child safety in your country?
Henry_Best:
Yes. To keep intruders out and to keep the smaller children in, for their own safety.
Unless you'd like the school open to any and every paedophile or 5 year-olds to run out onto a busy road.
Don't they care about child safety in your country?
The most risky things visiting schools in Germany are: Possible traffic accidents on the way to school, possible sport accidents when practising gymnastics, and possible traffic accidents on the way back from school going home. These are the three "high risk activities" of a student in elementary school here in Germany.
None of these risks is reduced by creating gated entry to school.
Besides of that, many German students have keychain RFID transponders meanwhile: Not for entering school, but for cash-free paying a meal at the school canteen or for lending books from the school library.
If you are thinking about a RFID solution, you should think about an all-in-one RFID solution for the whole school: The student must be able to use the same RFID transponder for every task where he needs the transponder to identify himself:
for identifying on entering the schools gate (as you want it)
for identifying when entering a toilet room (don't know if the school counts visits to the toilet)
for user login in computers at the schools computer rooms
for entering the school library (perhaps "gated entry" to the library in your country)
for lending books from school library (German students will need their RFID for that)
for paying cash-free in the school canteen (German students will need their RFID for that)
for paying cash-free copies at the copy machines (as offered for students by some German universities)
So that the same student just needs one single RFID transponder for every identification he has to do in his school. I think that students (and parents) may hate it, if the student has to carry a bunch of RFID transponders and barcodes with him, to identify himself for gated entry, canteen and library or user login into school computers using different identification tags for each task.
How about barcode hats? http://www.zazzle.com.au/bar+code+hats
Practical and fashionable at the same time.
Just have overhead scanners at every door way. Problem solved.