Revision 985825 of "User:Mingjunli/enes100/attendance" on enwikiversity

==Week0 Activities==
===Write problem/project Goal===
To understand what has been done on the attendance project and to integrate facial recognition with attendance spreadsheet.

===My First Task===
Download all facial recognition to to my computer and see the steps the other teams did with them.

==Week1 Activities==
===Summary of actual work over first weekend===
''How is what you did different than what you planned?''

===Week1 Narrative===
''Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the weekend.''

===My Second Task===
''Record what you are planning on doing for the team during the second weekend.''

==Week2 Activities==
===Summary of actual work over second weekend===
This week, my task was to find out how the barcode attendance system works in Math Lab of HCC. Tuesday after class, I went to the math lab and asked a student how the bar code attendance system works, then I also asked a teacher there about the bar code attendance system. Also, in order to know more about barcode attendance system, I googled a lot about it and watched some videos about the system. Basically, I think bar code attendance project would be a very great idea. Not only because it is very easy to get access to, but also it is a very cheap and popular way to use. Nowadays, many high schools in the US are using barcode attendance now. And then I also searched something about bank card attendance (one of my teammates' idea, and I think it's really good), and fingerprint attendance. But I think the Bank card attendance would not be a good idea to work on after searching it online. And the fingerprint attendance project basically is like the barcode attendance. But the difference is some students may think being collected fingerprint will violet their privacy. So, I would think barcode attendance would be a good way to work on since every HCC student has a library ID sticker which is a barcode sticker that stick on the back of student ID.

===Week2 Narrative===
'''1. barcode attendance in HCC math lab.'''
[[File:Product 1 136872 20120315130353.png|thumb|bar code scanner]]
*This Tuesday after class, I went to HCC math lab and investigated how the bar code attendance work. Basically, when students get into the lab, they will need to use the barcode scanner near the door to scan the sticker on the back of their student IDs ( the sticker is from library, students can use it to borrow books from library). Also, I found that when students scan their cards as signing in, the computer will show how many hour they spend in the lab total. In order to know more about this attendance system, I asked a teacher who also work as the computer lab about how this system works and what kind of software HCC use. And he said said this system is based on the one HCC library uses, since they both scan students' library barcode and every student has their own barcode, so the library card will be their ID barcode. And all the names and information are in HCC's database. And when I asked him about what kind of software HCC use for this barcode attendance system, the teacher said it is about school security and he could not tell.

*After visiting HCC math lab, I went online and searched some information about barcode attendance. And found that, there are many high schools and colleges are using barcode attendance system to take attendance in the US. And many teachers say it is easy way to take attendance, also they can pay more attention on their teaching. 

*Before that every student should has their own barcode ID, whick means we need to create barcodes for every student. And then a barcode scanner will be needed, at last, a software to support the whole system will be needed too.
'''Basically, this is how barcode attendance works.'''  

*There are 3 components that make up a Barcode Time and Attendance system. First, barcode readers are used to allow students to make quick and accurate time transactions. Second, data taken from these devices needs to be managed and stored by PC's. Third, management of the time transactions, detailed reports is done by the Time and Attendance software. 
And here is the three parts that make the whole system works.'''Please click to enlarge the image.''' [[File:捕获333.PNG|thumb|1.Data Collection Devices 

2.Data Collection and Storage Computers 3.Barcode Time and Attendance Software]]

'''2.bank card attendance'''
[[File:Mini-USB-3-Tracks-Magnetic-Stripe-Card-Reader-MU600M0- (1).jpg|thumb| bank card scanner]]
At first, I like the idea of bank card attendance which is really creative. so, I went online and did some research on it.
* First, device. Devices are the most important part of this project. So, I first searched how much the bank card reader will cost. And then I found that the bank card readers are no that cheap. Also, most of those need to be online so that they can recognize the information of the scanned bank cards.

*And then I went to search on how people think about how people think about their bank cards being used in another ways rather than regular use which means going to ATM. And I found that very few people would not care about their bank cards being used in other way. Most people will care about their bank cards being used in another ways, even though it is for taking attendance. The most important thing is by this way, it's easy to copy information from the bank cards and make the other same one. Just like hackers do.

*If people would like use this way to be taken attendance, a lot of paper work will also be needed. Because banks need the permissions from card holders ( each card holder). And that will also need a lot of money to make that. So, bank card attendance would not be a good idea in such time.

'''3. Fingerprint attendance.''' 
[[File:Usb fingerprint scanner.JPG|thumb|Fingerprint scanner]]
Fingerprint attendance is basically the same as barcode attendance. Because fingerprints are like ID barcodes, they can be identified. So I went online and search the information about it, so that I will know which project to work on. 

*First, I went to search the devices which are like use throm drive used for scanning fingerprint. And the prices are around $45 to $100. It's not too expensive, could be cheaper than the barcode scanners. Also, most of those come with driver.

*Then search how people think about their fingerprint being used for attendance. 
I found that some people would not mind their fingerprints being used for taking attendance. And in Asia, such as Japan, almost every companies are using this technology to take employees' attendance. However, in the US, some people are talking about their fingerprints contain their privacy. They don't want hackers to use their fingerprint to do something illigel. And some people are really bothered by this. 

So, now the best way to take attendance would be the barcode attendance project. Since the HCC library and math lab are using this method, I think it will be really easy to get the project worked.    

===My Third task===
Since most of the soft wares that for the barcode attendance are not free, I need to find another way to get access to the attendance project. And try to use google drive spread sheet to make it work as a database that storage students' information. So that when they scan their barcode, their attendances will be taken. 
==Week3 Activities==
===Summary of actual work over third weekend===
For this week, in order to know more about what I am doing in my project, I went to HCC's math lab with one of my teammates again. Then I took some pics to show how the attendance system in HCC works. Basically, there are three kinds of system in HCC. The first one is bar code scanner which is the one in math lab. The other one is by using student ID numbers which is also in the math lab. The last one is the teacher IDs.  

===Week3 Narrative===
This week, my task was to find some software for my attendance project. But before that, I went to the math lab in HCC with Tim again, so that I would have a better idea to work on my project. 
*And as I mentioned above,there are three kinds of system in HCC. The first one is bar code scanner which is the one in math lab. The other one is by using student ID numbers which is also in the math lab. The last one is the teacher IDs.
* The reason why there are two ways of taking attendance in HCC math lab is because sometimes students may forget to bring their student IDs with them, so if they lose points because of no bringing their IDs would be unfair. And that's why there are two ways to take attendance in the lab.

So, I came up an idea. '''It's that the attendance system not only let us use bar code, but also use ID numbers.'''   
But also this mentioned above requires a system to connect the three parts  (1.Data Collection Devices 2.Data Collection and Storage Computers 3.Barcode Time and Attendance Software) 


{| class="wikitable"
|-
| [[File:Attendance 2.jpg|thumb|on our way to HR building.]]
[[File:Attendance 3.jpg|thumb|Go straight and turn left, you will see the MATH lab]]
[[File:Attendance 4.jpg|thumb|Our student IDs]]
[[File:Attendance 5.jpg|thumb|one has library sticker, the other doesn't]]
[[File:Attendance 6.jpg|thumb|HR326A]]
[[File:Attendance 7.jpg|thumb|HR326A]]
[[File:Attendance 8.jpg|thumb|this is the barcode attendance system in math lab. the computer is connect to HCC database.]]
[[File:Attendance 9.jpg|thumb|ready to scan your student ID ( the library sticker)]]
[[File:Attendance 10.jpg|thumb|scanning it]]
[[File:Attendance 11.jpg|thumb|Since i am not taking math 060,061,067,070.... in this lab, so it will so my information here. and because this lab is for students who are taking classes here, so i have no access to take attendance here.]]
[[File:Attendance 12.jpg|thumb|the math lab downstairs is open to every student in HCC. If you don't have your library bar code sticker, you can just type in your studnet ID numbers]]
[[File:Attendance 13.jpg|thumb|once you done typing in your student ID numbers, it will ask you to select which class you are taking]]
[[File:Attendance 14.jpg|thumb|for me, i will chose math 181]]
[[File:Attendance 15.jpg|thumb|then it will show you are now logged in. ]]
|}

And I've found some software for the attendance system. However, none of them are free.  
===My Fourth task===
Going to find some absolutely free software. Once I get the devices, I will use a the software I found to test them and make an actually work system. 
==Week4 Activities==
===Summary of actual work over fourth weekend===
This week, I finally got the scanners, which are laser bar code scanner, fingerprint scanner and bank card scanner. Also, me and my teammates made a video tutorial for the laser scanner.

===Week4 Narrative===
First, me and my teammates made this video tutorial for the laser bar code scanner. '''And here is the link to the video'''. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Thd0ocPro&feature=youtu.be

Also, I took some pics of the unboxing of the scanner. I found that to use the bar code scanner without installing the driver, we should go to google search bar and click it then go to scan the bar code. 
[[File:Three different kinds of scanner.jpg|thumb|our new toys!!]] 
[[File:Unboxing the laser bar code scanner.jpg|thumb|Unboxing the bar code scanner]]
[[File:Opening the box.jpg|thumb|Opening the box]]
[[File:Finally we got our toy!!.jpg|thumb|there it is !!]]
[[File:About to set up.jpg|thumb|going to set up the stand]]
[[File:Setting up.jpg|thumb|Add caption here]]
[[File:Test it after plug it in to the computer.jpg|thumb|a part of the stand]]
[[File:Tim is setting up the holder.jpg|thumb|it's on]]
[[File:The holder.jpg|thumb|Tim's setting up the stand]]
[[File:Setting up the holder.jpg|thumb|stand]]
[[File:Going to unbox the bank card reader.jpg|thumb|stand]]
[[File:Going to scan the bar code on the bank card reader's box.jpg|thumb|Going to scanner the bar code on this box]]
[[File:The scanning the barcode on the box.jpg|thumb|Going to scan the bar code. it was also the first time testing the scanner.]]
[[File:It pops up the info.jpg|thumb|when you go to google, then scan it . it will pop up the info of the bar code.]]
[[File:Go to Goolge image.jpg|thumb|show the images]]
[[File:Setting it up.jpg|thumb|setting it up]]
[[File:Finally got the holder set up.jpg|thumb|Finally got the holder set up.]]
[[File:Put them together.jpg|thumb|put then together ]]
[[File:Done unboxing the bank card reader.jpg|thumb|this is the bank card scanner]]
[[File:The bank card reader.jpg|thumb|bank card scanner]]
[[File:After scanning the safeway card.jpg|thumb|after scanning the safeway card]]

===Complete Team Page===
[[Attendance/Howard_Community_College/fall2012/p3-503-ff|Team Page]]