Research on attendance management system for college students based on RFID technology

1 Introduction

As the scale of colleges and universities continues to expand, the number of students continues to increase, and the informatization of teaching management and student management in colleges and universities is gradually improved. Campus network-based student course selection systems, score inquiry systems, educational management systems, admissions and employment systems have emerged in major universities, bringing great convenience to the study, life, management, and office work of teachers and students in universities.

In the teaching management of colleges and universities, attendance management is an important means to ensure the quality of teaching. Students' attendance records in class are also an important basis for evaluating students' daily performance. At present, in most colleges and universities, student attendance management is still completed using the traditional method of teacher roll call and manual entry. With the expansion of the scale of colleges and universities, for some basic courses and professional basic courses, the number of teaching classes is generally more than 100 people. At the same time, with the popularization of higher education and the diversification of ideas, it has become common for students to be absent from class, arrive late, and leave early. Teachers obtain attendance data through roll call, sign-in, etc., which on the one hand consumes a lot of time and affects classroom teaching. At the same time, it is difficult to avoid students Phenomenons such as signing and answering on behalf of students are relatively difficult to manage; on the other hand, attendance information is often only mastered by teachers. As a basis for calculating daily grades, it cannot be uploaded to the teaching management department for sharing in a timely manner, so that the teaching management department can review it through the class teacher. Students who are seriously absent from class should be supervised, warned and educated to achieve the purpose of correcting the study style and improving the quality of teaching. In addition, since the attendance information is not disclosed, students cannot check their class attendance status, which will also affect the objectivity and fairness of attendance and usual results.

Under the traditional teaching attendance management system, students apply for leave to their class teachers, department leaders and academic affairs management departments in the form of leave requests, and they can only take effect after approval step by step. Leave information is sent to the instructor in the form of a leave note. This model has exposed many disadvantages in the management of colleges and universities with an increasingly high degree of informationization: first, it is inconvenient for students to ask for leave, and the approval efficiency of managers is low; secondly, teaching teachers cannot grasp the status of students asking for leave in a timely manner, causing teachers to Student attendance records for classes are inaccurate.

Traditional attendance management is time-consuming, laborious, inefficient and the information is not timely. It can no longer meet the management requirements of modern universities. Therefore, it is necessary to use a student attendance management system based on the campus network to automatically collect student attendance information through RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to avoid teachers taking up classroom teaching time by calling names and improve teaching efficiency; to improve the convenience of students asking for leave through online leave and approval methods and the efficiency of management department approval. Students, teachers and teaching management departments share attendance information through the campus network, increasing the transparency of information and improving the management quality of the management department.

2. Introduction to RFID technology

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification, Radio Frequency Identification) is a non-contact automatic identification technology that automatically identifies a target through radio frequency signals to obtain the individual information of the object and obtain relevant data. The identification work does not require manual intervention and can work in a variety of applications. Harsh environment. RFID technology has the advantages that barcodes do not have, such as waterproof, antimagnetic, high temperature resistance, long service life, large reading distance, good data confidentiality, large storage data capacity, and convenient information storage and update. Therefore, as a fast, real-time, accurate Information technology that collects and processes data on specific objects has been widely used in various fields such as production, retail, logistics, and transportation.

RFID application systems generally consist of three parts: electronic tags, readers, and application systems. The electronic tag consists of a tag chip and a tag antenna, and is attached to the object to be identified. The EPC (Electronic Product Code) in the electronic tag chip records the basic information of the object, and the EPC tag can provide a unique identification for each physical entity. The tag antenna is used to communicate with the RF antenna on the reader. The reader is mainly used to read or write electronic tag information. The radio frequency antenna on the reader transmits radio frequency signals between the electronic tag and the reader.

The basic working principle of the RFID system is shown in Figure 1. The reader sends a radio frequency signal of a certain frequency through the radio frequency antenna. When the electronic tag enters the working area of the transmitting antenna, it generates an induced current and obtains energy to be activated; the electronic tag sends its own code and other information through the tag antenna; the radio frequency antenna receives the information sent from the electronic tag. The incoming carrier signal is transmitted to the reader through the antenna regulator; the reader demodulates and decodes the received signal, and then connects to the external computer system through the RS232 or RS485 interface of the reader, and realizes the conversion of information through a specialized computer system , processing and application.

3. Design of attendance management system for college students based on RFID technology

3.1 Overall system structure

In order to realize the automatic collection and information sharing of student attendance data, this system uses RFID technology, with the help of the campus network, and adopts a 3-layer architecture based on the browser/server (B/S) network computing model. It has convenient and good system maintenance and upgrades. advantages of openness and scalability.

The overall structure of the application system consists of 3 parts: RFID system, middleware system and computer application system. The RFID system includes RFID electronic tags, readers, and data exchange and management system software; the middleware system consists of Savant server, ONS server, PML (Physical Markup Language) server and corresponding data software. The structure of the student attendance management system based on the campus network is shown in Figure 2.

(1) Electronic tag. Embed the RFID tag recording the student's basic information into the student IC card. The EPC provides the unique identification of the student object. The information Stored in the EPC code can include basic information such as student number, name, major, gender, etc.

Currently, there are three types of electronic tags that can be used: active, passive and semi-active. Active and semi-active tags can adapt to long-distance scanning, and the recognition distance can reach 15~30m. Students do not need to wait in line to check attendance, making attendance faster. , and the reading and writing distance of the passive RFID system reading and writing device is short, generally within 10cm, so students' attendance must be queued up one by one, which reduces the attendance efficiency. Therefore, this system uses active tags.

(2) Reader. Readers are installed at various attendance points, for example, at the entrance of the main building of the school and at the entrance of each classroom. When students enter the attendance location, the reader uses induction radio waves to complete the collection of tag information EPC codes. The tag sends electromagnetic waves to the reader, and these returned electromagnetic waves are converted into data information, that is, the tag's EPC code. The reader will use the collected information to complete classroom login and student identity identification through the ONS and PML servers configured in the campus network.

(3)Savant server. During the student attendance process, after the reader receives the EPC code, it uses Savant's software system to complete online data transmission and management. The main tasks are data proofreading, reader coordination, data transmission, data storage and task management.

(4) Object name resolution server (ONS). Find reference information about students by matching the EPC code with the corresponding student information. For example, when a reader reads the information of the EPC tag, the EPC code is passed to the Savant system, and then ONS is used to find the student information through the campus network. The ONS will specify the server where the student information is stored to the Savant system and transfer the student information in this File to the Savant system.

(5)PML server. Student information is written in Physical Markup Language (PML), which is developed based on Extensible Markup Language (XML). PML files are stored on the EPC information server to provide required files for other computers.

(6) Computer application system. It is an attendance management system specially developed by this system to complete students' attendance information inquiry, statistics and daily score calculation. The developed attendance management system also provides online leave application and approval functions based on the campus network, so that attendance data can reflect students' leave information on the basis of automatic collection, making it more objective and accurate.

3.2 Function design of attendance management system

The goal of this system is to automatically, real-time, and accurately collect attendance information such as lateness, early departure, and absence for students in accordance with the needs of college student attendance management, and transmit and share it through the campus network to achieve query and statistics of student attendance information. and analysis; it is also required to provide online leave application and approval functions based on the campus network, so that attendance data can reflect students' leave information, and students' daily grades can be automatically counted based on students' attendance.

According to the above requirements, the functional modules of the system are shown in Figure 3.

The main functions of each module are as follows:

(1) Student information management. Maintain basic information such as student number, name, class, etc. It is mainly used to identify students and check whether they are eligible for attendance. Only students who meet the list can take attendance.

(2) Teaching class management. Maintain teaching class information. Including teaching class number, list of selected students, course number, course name, class time, classroom, etc. This information is an important basis for collecting attendance information.

(3) Label information registration. Register and maintain student information on electronic tags to keep it consistent with the information in the student database.

(4) Reader configuration. Set the reader's number, location, IP address and other information.

(5) Collection and processing of attendance information. The reader automatically reads the EPC information in the students' electronic tags and transmits the signal to the ONS system. At the same time, it locates the RFID holder, determines its IP address, and checks it with the classroom IP address saved in the database. After the verification is correct, Then compare it with the class time and the list of students in class. Only students who meet the above three conditions at the same time can take normal attendance. For students who have been verified correctly, the attendance time will be automatically recorded, and whether they are late or absent from class will be determined based on the student's request for leave. After the above judgment and processing, the student's attendance will be recorded in the attendance database. For individual students who may be carrying someone else's IC card to deceive the attendance system, the teacher can immediately count the number of students. If the number does not match the number counted by the system, it means there is invalid student information, which should be pointed out on the spot and rechecked.

(6) Application for leave. Students fill out the leave application form online through the Internet and wait for the approval of the management department. They can also check the leave approval status at any time.

(7) Leave approval. Department leaders and management departments can review and approve students’ leave applications online. Approved leave applications are recorded in the attendance database.

(8) Attendance information query: Students can query the attendance status of their courses. Teachers can check the attendance status of teaching classes.

(9) Attendance statistics. The teaching management department can count the attendance of a certain course, the attendance of students by department or class, and the attendance of students of a certain teacher.

(10) Calculation of attendance scores. Teachers can set the proportion of attendance in the overall course evaluation as needed, and the system will automatically calculate each student's attendance score based on the student's attendance.

(11) Severe absence warning. The teaching management department can set a serious absence threshold. Students who are absent beyond a certain level will be placed on the serious absence warning list. The system will notify the seriously absent students themselves, their class teachers or counselors, and the teaching management department in the form of text messages, or they can be notified in the form of emails. Parents can supervise and warn students.

  4 Conclusion

The key issue in the college attendance management system is the automatic identification and acquisition of student information. In view of the problems existing in the traditional attendance method, this article proposes an attendance management system based on RFID technology and campus network, and conducts a detailed analysis of its structure and functions. Combine RFID technology with the Internet and use electronic tags as a means of identification to obtain student attendance information and improve teaching efficiency; improve the convenience of students' request for leave and the efficiency of management department approval through online leave application and approval methods. Students, teachers and teaching management departments share attendance information through the campus network, increasing the transparency of information and improving the management quality of the management department. It is believed that with the reduction of RFID technology costs and the improvement of relevant standards and specifications, college attendance management systems based on RFID technology will be widely used.