[K12OSN] OT - Student Entered Attendance System

[James P. Kinney III]

ID card with a mag stripe or bar code? Or maybe just a fingerprint
swipe. I wouldn't bother with the in or out designation as they will
goof up and do the wrong one or figure out a way to game the process.
Access badges with rfid tags are often used in business for entry/exit
security.

So the thin client can do USB stuff very easy. There are many card
readers that are USB devices and Linux friendly. The bar code stuff is
seen as just text input anyway. If you need the direction details, just
use two readers, one for in and one for out. 

You will need to associate the id number with a username (easy - hash
lookup or dictionary). One associated you can have some fun with it! Pop
up a picture on the screen of the student (or teacher) and use festival
to greet them audibly ("Good morning Mary Sue", "Goodbye John Smith").
On Mon, 2008-06-23 at 00:58 -0700, Carl Keil wrote:
> Hey Kind Folks,
> 
> I've been asked to create something and I thought I'd pick the 
> collective brain before possibly entering into the wheel reinvention game.
> 
> Does anyone know of a computerized system for keeping track of 
> attendance that would function with the kids themselves (k-12) entering 
> their own comings and goings into the system?  As I sit down to design 
> this I'm imagining all kinds of data integrity nightmares with 
> kindergarteners clicking "sign in" and "sign out" buttons that are next 
> their (or someone else's) name.  This would be some sort of kiosk by the 
> front door.  I'm thinking that if I use a web interface (I am a web 
> programmer), I'll use a thin client for this. 
> 
> This is for a free school, where kids can enter and leave the school at 
> different times.  There is no "home room" or designated check in time.  
> Right now, kids sign in on paper, but it is making reporting and 
> tracking trends difficult.  I'm toying with the idea of using facial 
> (and possibly voice) recognition software.  So, a kid comes in, sticks 
> their mug into a camera and clicks a button that either says they are 
> coming or going.  If the picture can't be recognized, it is stored and 
> flagged for human identification.  I have no idea how to do that though. 
> 
> One other design problem is that we need some record of who's in the 
> building that we can grab if there's a fire or other emergency.  That's 
> where the sign-in sheet on the clipboard really shines.
> 
> Any brainstormy thoughts at all about pitfalls or solutions would be 
> helpful at this point.  Anyone else have a situation similar to this?
> 
> ck
> 
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-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC                           
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7


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