DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A FINGERPRINT ATTENDANCE SYSTEM

FOR GHANA REVENUE AUTHORITY, TAMALE WEST TSC USING ARDUINO

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The need of attendance system in organizations such as Ghana Revenue Authority, Tamale

West TSC has proved to have failed to achieve its major purpose which is to ensure that the

right statistics of staff that report to work can be taken. Attendance system falls into two

types, namely conventional and automated. The conventional staff identification technique

such as paper-based attendance, time clock are out of date. Manual monitoring is also

challenging when dealing with huge number of staff. As a result, current monitoring systems

have flaws that make it impossible to guard against issues like proxy attendance, identity card

theft and impersonation. The automated type of attendance include timecards, key fobs,

biometrics, interactive voice response (IVR). Many organizations are trying to identify

accurate, safe, and reliable techniques to protect access rights to their existing services or

operation. According to Thomas et al, Biometric attendance systems have improved

capturing and monitoring of attendance accurately. Employees may check-in and exit swiftly

and efficiently with the use of biometric identification technologies, according to Manoharan

et al. 

Biometrics, especially in information technology, encompasses methods to analyse and

identify unique features for monitoring purposes. Various physical features including faces,

eyes, fingers, hands, veins, ears and teeth can be used by this technology, and characteristics

such as gaits or voice patterns are still being investigated and analysed as part of the wider

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biometrics field. Biometrics offers secure methods of access to sensitive services and

obviates the need to carry a token, card, or remember several passwords. Biometric

techniques also reduce the risk of lost, forgotten or copied passwords, stolen tokens or over

the shoulder attacks, yet despite all this obvious advantages there is still one major reasons

why it has not been implemented in many organizations which is that the biometric technique

is expensive and the level of standardization differs within systems, numerous health hazards,

requirement for a  specialist analytical software and availability of machines with the

computing power to run it. Fingerprint identification is one of the most well-known and

common Biometric identification system, because of their uniqueness and consistency over

time, fingerprint has been used for identification for many years, more recently becoming

automated due to advancement in computing capabilities. The fingerprint system seems to be

the most cost effective and easy to use among all the biometric systems.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The traditional system is still used in Ghana Revenue Authority, Tamale West TSC.

Employees upon arrival at work sign in a notebook provided to them with their names and

time upon arrival. Falsification in employee attendance occurs a lot using the traditional

method of attendance. For example, an employee can easily sign on behalf of another

employee. In other to prevent this, it is necessary to develop an authentication system for

employees a fingerprint biometric recognition that will be employed to track the attendance

of every staff in the organization. Fingerprint is a unique feature compared to using key cards

where an employee could have access to another employee’s card and use it to do whatever

he or she wants. The security of the existing system can easily be compromised as an

employee will master another employee’s signature thereby helping their colleagues who

come to work late sign using the duplicated signature. The fingerprint attendance system for

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Ghana Revenue Authority, Tamale West TSC using Arduino is a more secured platform

where employees mark their attendance using their fingerprints

1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study is to design and develop a reliable, scalable and cost-effective

fingerprint attendance system for Ghana Revenue Authority, Tamale West TSC using

Arduino. This will be achieved by the following objectives

 To carry out an analysis of the traditional attendance system

 To design a new system for the above

 To develop the new system with the help of Arduino

1.4 BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION

Ghana Revenue Authority, Tamale West TSC was established in 2009 as a merger of the

three revenue agencies and their core mandate is to ensure maximum compliance with all

relevant tax laws. The mode of attendance is the traditional way of taking attendance of

employees where employees arrive at work and sign in a notebook provided. Due to the

manual nature, individuals sign for others and some staff, when they arrive late and instead of

clocking in the time of arrival they do otherwise. The project is a simple fingerprint

attendance system using Arduino and very useful for a place where attendance is taken. This

project utilises a thumb impression for taking attendance. The system, using Arduino is based

on a simple algorithm called a matching algorithm and compared with stored templates of

fingerprints against users’ fingerprint for authentication. In this attendance system, the user

places a finger on the sensor, the attendance is taken, and the electromagnetic lock opens.

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1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The system for employees of Ghana Revenue Authority, Tamale West TSC using the

fingerprint biometric will eliminate the use of the traditional way of taking attendance and the

associated risk that comes with it. The risks of using an attendance notebook in Ghana

Revenue Authority, Tamale West TSC is that it can easily be misplaced and some sheets

missing. This method can be time consuming and susceptible to errors. Thus, the new system

will reduce time needed to sign the attendance book.

The system also allows the organizations management to track employee’s attendance, when

the employee goes on leave or out of office. The system provides high level of security

thereby making it impossible for impersonators to get access. The system also allows the data

of employees to be recorded for future reference.

The fingerprint attendance system using Arduino is useful for Ghana Revenue Authority,

Tamale West TSC, in other to cob impersonators.

 Employees will be more regular to work and punctual since no employee will be able

to sign for another.

 No need to maintain an attendance notebook as attendance are electronically stored.

 It saves time, cost and very effective.

 Management may easily get attendance of staff.

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1.6 LIMITATIONS

The efficiency of the sensor can be reduced due to the roughages in the captured fingerprint

which are caused by dirt’s found on fingerprint. Therefore, the is every possibility that

enrolled users can be rejected by the system. the scanner cannot distinguish between an

artificial or real finger. Also, if an enrolled fingerprint has been duplicated or spoofed, it is

not possible to change fingerprint as in the case of a password.

1.7 DEFINITION AND ABBREVIATION OF TERMS

Biometrics – Unique physical characteristics such as fingerprints that can be used for

automated recognition.

GRA – Ghana Revenue Authority

TSC – Tax Service Centre

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display – A type of flat panel display which uses liquid crystals in its

operation.

IVR – Interactive Voice Response

ARDUINO – An open-source electronic platform based on easy-to-use hardware and

software.

Electromagnetic Lock – A device that consist of an electromagnet and an armature plate.

Fingerprint Sensor – A hardware that can quickly read a person’s unique pattern of ridges on

their fingertip to verify identity.

AdaFruit Fingerprint Sensor – Adafruit Fingerprint Sensor makes adding fingerprint

detection and verification super simple.

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Timecards – A card used with a time clock to record an employee's starting and quitting times

each day or on each job.

Key Fobs – Provides on-device, one-factor authentication to facilitate access to a system or

device, such as a car, computer system, restricted area or room, mobile device, network

service or other kind of keyless entry system.