Engineering Projects/Attendance/Howard Community College/Fall2014

Team Members

Attendance Scanning

Background

Attendance is the process of marking students arriving on-time as present and students arriving late as tardy. Depending upon the course and the professor, it may or may not count towards the final grade. The engineering department at Howard Community College includes attendance as part of the students grade which is accumulative. Being tardy deprives student of credit for that day.

Problem

Taking attendance was a big problem for professors at Howard Community College during individual class sections and the engineering seminar. Students would arrive late or after teach took attendance and it caused disruptions as the professor would adjust the record for the late student.

Possible Solutions

Sign-Ins:

Long Sign-In Lists = Longer time for student to find their name.

Magnetic Strip Reader:

Expensive
If magnet strip damaged, then the magnetic reader cant read the data.

RFID Tags:

Expensive

School Library Barcode:

Cheap, Not expensive equipment
Easy to reproduce

Best Solution

In order to provide a more efficient and less class disruptions for taking attendance, our team choose for our project, "Attendance Scanning". The solution to the attendance problem was easy for creating;

The barcode scanner can be directly connected to a computer with a USB connection. When using Google spreadsheets, the scanned data from barcodes is instantly put onto the spreadsheet without any other software needed. The Minimal Attendance Program that was written by Scott Foerster which let me test taking attendance by either manually entering in the barcode numbers or scrolling through each name and entering in the attendance using the spacebar. The Attendance Program could be used with the barcode scanner which requires numbers that are in the barcode font and the numbers that are in the program.

Team In Action

Gathered equipment needed:

Barcode Scanner
Programs:

Arduino IDE
Proccessing

Arduino Board
USB Host Shield
USB Cable

Implementation

Started off the learning about how to do Arduino coding (but to a minimum).

Room Access

The door used to automatically open the lock after a pattern of knocks was accepted by the sensor. After the pattern was accepted, the arduino thus allows the machine on the door to turn the handle and open the lock. We haven't gotten very far with this part of the project yet. We have looked at the weekly reports for the teams who have already done this, and we have looked at the machine itself in the school.

Pros and Cons list of Wired vs. Wireless Scanner

Wireless
Pros	Cons
Doesn't need extra space for wire	Requires battery
Easier to mount on wall	Easily stolen
Doesn't have a wire	Requires manual activation

Wired
Pros	Cons
Constant energy	Need path for wire
Motion sensor	Wire could be too short
Hard to steal	Hard to mount on wall

Need to measure how much space there is between the door and the right wall near the center hinges, as viewed from inside the classroom

Need to make something using maker bot that would be between the door and the center hinges that could use the screws around the center plate

Need to use a coat hanger to dig through the caulk of the door so that the wire of the wired scanner can go through the the door to a computer or arduino