Developing An Access Control System for Students’ Identification in Higher Institutions of Learning Using Biometric Technique

ABSTRACT Biometric technology is a technique that is capable of uniquely identifying a person through his/her characteristics features. The use of this approach is gaining ground in recent times, particularly in higher institution of learning where impersonation is currently at alarming rate. The technology offers a reliable solution for solving recognition problem through features such as: fingerprint, faces, iris, palm print etc. The main objective of this study is to implement a system that uses fingerprint to identify registered students of Kano State Polytechnic and further track their attendance during lectures and examinations. This study developed a system, configure the system and ensure proper synchronization with a biometric device. The system was developed using dot net framework. Specifically, visual basic.net is used for coding all the interactive interfaces, while SQL server 2008 was used as the back-end. In order to establish the efficiency of the developed system in terms of usability, its usability was determined using the approach of System Usability Scale (SUS). A total of 60 students participated in the study by navigating through the system and based on their interactions, they responded to the structured questionnaire designed to test the system’s usability. The result of evaluating the usability of the system based on the SUS approach gave 82.7%. Hence, the system was found to be very accurate, reliable and secured for keeping students bio data and it restricts access to intruders that is unregistered person. Thus, it was concluded that, this system is an indispensable tool for curtailing impersonation by students and for keeping authentic records of students. Hence, the relevance and academic importance of this system cannot be over emphasizing. Thus, in order to bring an end to the rampant cases of impersonations during lectures and examinations in the institutions of higher learning. Kano State Polytechnic in particular can adopt the system developed in this study for total eradication of such menace.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ................................................................................................................................ i

APPROVAL ...................................................................................................................................... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................................................... iii

LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................ iv

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................... vi

ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................... xi

CHAPTER ONE ...............................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................1

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY.............................................................................................1

1.1.1 Historical Perspectives...............................................................................................................3

1.1.2 Conceptual Perspectives. ...........................................................................................................4

1.1.3 Contextual Perspectives.............................................................................................................5

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT...........................................................................................................6

1.3MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY .........................................................................................7

1.3.1 Specific Objectives of the Study................................................................................................8

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION.............................................................................................................8

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.............................................................................................................8

1.5.1 Geographical Scope ...................................................................................................................8

1.5.2 Content Scope ............................................................................................................................9

1.5.3 Time Scope ................................................................................................................................9

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY..............................................................................................9

1.7 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE..............................................................................................10

CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................11

LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................................................................11

2.0 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................11

2.1 BIOMETRIC SYSTEM..............................................................................................................11

2.2 FINGERPRINT SCANNER.......................................................................................................12

2.2.1 Fingerprint Recognition...........................................................................................................13

viii

2.2.2 Types of Biometrics.................................................................................................................15

2.2.3 How Biometric Fingerprint Works..........................................................................................18

2.3 APPLICATION OF BIOMETRIC TECHNIQUES. ..................................................................19

2.4 CHALLENGES OF USING BIOMETRICS..............................................................................20

2.5 BENEFITS OF USING BIOMETRICS FOR STUDENT ATTENDANCE MONITORING...22

2.6 RELATED WORKS...................................................................................................................23

2.7 GAPS THAT NEED TO BE FILLED.......................................................................................26

2.8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE MODEL................................................................27

2.9 THE USE OF SYSTEM USABILITY SCALE..........................................................................32

2.10 REVIEW OF THE EXISTING METHODS OF STUDENT ATTENDANCE 

REGISTRATION. ............................................................................................................................32

CHAPTER THREE........................................................................................................................34

METHODOLOGY .........................................................................................................................34

3.0 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................34

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN................................................................................................................34

3.3 DATA COLLECTION ...............................................................................................................36

3.4 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT.....................................................................................................37

3.5 TARGET POPULATION...........................................................................................................37

3.6 SAMPLE SIZE ...........................................................................................................................37

3.7 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE ........................................................................................................37

3.8 DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE.............................................................................................37

3.9 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE.......................................................................................37

3.10 SYSTEM MODELLING..........................................................................................................38

3.11 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS..............................................................................................38

CHAPTER FOUR...........................................................................................................................39

ANALYSIS, DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION ....................................................................39

4.0 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................39

4.1 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS FROM THE RESPONSES ON THE SPECIFIC 

OBJECTIVES...................................................................................................................................39

4.1.1 Analysis of the Existing System of Identifying Students at Kano State Polytechnic, Nigeria.39

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4.2 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A BIOMETRIC SYSTEM FOR IMMEDIATE 

IDENTIFICATION OF THE STUDENT FINGER PRINT. ...........................................................41

4.2.1 System modeling using UML..................................................................................................41

4.2.2 Software ...................................................................................................................................41

4.2.3 Hardware..................................................................................................................................42

4.2.4 Block Diagram of the System..................................................................................................42

4.2.5 Diagram....................................................................................................................................43

4.2.6 Sequence Diagram for Administrator......................................................................................44

4.2.7 Sequence Diagram for Student ................................................................................................46

4.3 IMPLEMENTATION OF DATABASE STRUCTURE............................................................47

4.3.1 Database Structure ...................................................................................................................47

4.4 FINGER PRINT CAPTURING PROCEDURE OF SELECTED REGISTERED STUDENTS.

...........................................................................................................................................................51

CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................................55

RESULT, DISCUSSION, EVALUATION, AND TESTING .....................................................55

5.1 The System Main Menu implementation....................................................................................55

5.2 RESPONSE FROM THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE ONE..........................................................64

5.2.1 To analyze the existing system being used in Kano State Polytechnic. ..................................64

5.2.2 To design and develop a biometric system for immediate identification of the students 

fingerprint. ........................................................................................................................................65

5.2.3 To capture the finger print of registered students at Kano State Polytechnic using a biometric 

device. ...............................................................................................................................................66

5.3 Evaluating the performance of the developed biometric System using registered and 

unregistered student. .........................................................................................................................67

5.4 Testing of the Prototype System.................................................................................................70

5.4.2 Steps: Software is tested from two different views: ................................................................71

5.5 UNIT TESTING: ......................................................................................................................71

5.5.1 System Testing.........................................................................................................................71

5.5.2 Performance Testing ................................................................................................................71

5.6 TEST CASES............................................................................................................................72

CHAPTER SIX ...............................................................................................................................73

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. ............................................................................73

6.1 CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................73

6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................75

6.3 FUTURE WORK........................................................................................................................75

6.4 CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE......................................................................................75

6.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY..............................................................................................76

6.6 SUMMARY..............................................................................................................................76

REFERENCE....................................................................................................................................78

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................................87

Appendix A: Interview Guide...........................................................................................................87

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT .................................................................................88

APPENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE.................................................................................................92

APPENDIX D: HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CODES ...........................................................93

APPENDIX E: BUDGET...............................................................................................................105