CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

As most nations of the world are becoming information technology inclined, Nigeria is not left behind. Even as most organizations and companies in the foreign countries have implemented information technology in their films, likewise most of Nigerias organizations and companies have also enjoyed the benefits of information technology. As I consider the design and implementation of fingerprint attendance system for security section of campus of health science of Ebonyi state university, Biometrics refers to the automatic identification of a person based on his or her physiological or behavioral characteristics. It includes fingerprint, iris, voice identification, facial and retinal, etc. Biometrics technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. Today, biometric is being spotlighted as the authentication method because of the need for reliable security. Fingerprint authentication has been in use for the longest time and bears more advantages than other biometrics. It has been verified through various applications. Fingerprint Attendance System work by scanning and measuring the pattern on an employee's finger. In a simple description, workers mark their arrival and departure on the system by placing their hand on the biometrics finger scan device. Each time the employee attempts to check in or out, the fingerprint device then captures and match fingerprint image with the template stored in database to verify specific person, if there is a match, the attendance is recorded. This process can be done in a second without having to takes long time to queue. Fingerprint Attendance System helps organization for registering and tracking employee attendance. This system eliminates paperwork and saves employees time calculation, validation, and re-keying attendance information. As a result, employee working hours, lateness, absence, overtime and others can be accurately tracked and reported which can be important in organizations. All these must be put into consideration and they are well treated in the subsequent section of this project work.

1.2 BACKGROUND Security section of campus of health science of Ebonyi state university, abakaliki, has been operating on manual attendance system, which involves keeping records of workers check in and out subsequently. All these operations are done on paper, which could get burnt or destroyed accidentally or even prone to errors. The existing system is not user friendly because the retrieval of data is very slow and data is not maintained efficiently. Existing system requires lot of paper work. Loss of even a single register/record/paper led to difficult situation because all the papers are needed to generate the reports. To generate report at the end of the month is very time consuming. Over the years, the manual system allows employee to sign in or out for another person owning for the fact that one can forge his/her colleague signature, and lateness to work was the other of the day as one can easily backward his or her arrival time. Oftentimes, dues to negligence, administrator representative do not give accurate account of absenteeism and lateness to work for the determination of adequate punishment to defaulters. 1.3 STATMENT OF PROBLEM The attendance system involves the use of paper/register to take attendance etc which are manual in recording and keeping of their information. Some of the biggest difficulties faced by manual method are: a) b) c) d) Employee asking their colleague to tick or sign for them. Labor intensive at the end of the month for attendance record and salary calculation. Physical storage space is required to store all those messy paper/register. Loss of records is always common to manual auditing as there is no computerized way of storing the information contained in these records. e) Handling records beset with problems. The records are not kept well and retrieval is very difficult for references. f) The numerous errors encountered by the use of such a manual attendance system. Calculation can sometime be wrong.

1.4

PURPOSE OF STUDY

The sole purpose of this project is to put to an end the difficulties security administrator face or encounter during attendance analyses and salary calculations. This will be achieved by fingerprint attendance automated system application for security section of campus of health science of Ebonyi state university which is user friendly and easy to implement, administrator will no longer be cheated of employee tick or sign for another, and lateness.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

With the growth of information technology, the study offers numerous values not only to security section of campus of health science of Ebonyi state university but also to any Institution that deals on Attendance record data/information. Huge of files kept in the offices will no longer be there again because information will be stored on the computer with the help of the fingerprint attendance automated system. Because of the easy to use nature of the system, any organization can easily make use of them.
1.6 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aims and objectives of this project are listed below: To develop software that replaces manual attendance record system of EBSU. To stop or solve the problems administrator face during salary calculation at the end of various month. To help the management in the effective distribution of security duty post information. To help the management to ensure no one sign or check for another. To help the management effectively administer adequate punishment to defaulters. All these contribute to make sure that employees attendance records are well processed at right time.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY

This project work is narrowed to campus of health science of Ebonyi state university. It deals with the designing of fingerprint attendance automated application for security section attendance system.

The program will help get information concerning (i) Staff information. (ii) Staff attendance record. (iii) Complain from staff. (iv) Duty post. Staff can still get history information about the security Board. The program will be self-explanatory and interactive. 1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY Owing to the scope of this project as mentioned above, this project work is limited to security department staff only. It is important to mention that time was a major constraint in the course of fact finding. It is also wise to mention here that some information i need to work with was not collected because of unwillingness of the security board to reveal such information.
1.9 ASSUMPTION OF STUDY

One of the major assumption made in this project work is that manual attendance systems are ineffective, time wasting and prone to either misplacement or mismanagement of record data by security officers. It is also assumed that with the level of development in information technology, there is a serious demand to join this trend of information technology. It is also assumed that fingerprint attendance automated system is more economical to the board when compared to the manual method. 1.10 DEFINITION OF TERMS o Computer: An electronic device that works under the control of a stored software (operating system) automatically receiving data, processing the data and giving output or stores it for future reference. o Fingerprint scanner: this is the device that capture staff fingerprint and transfer it to computer system. o Record: this is a collection of related files. o Database: This is the collection of related record. o Date: a specific numbered day of the month or a specific year. o Data: data are the raw material for producing information.

o Information: it is the collection of processed data or several items put together to convey a given message. o Template: template is the stored fingerprint in the database use for matching to verify specific person. o Time: measure of period stated in hour, second and minute to show arrival and departure period. o Staff: This is a person working for the establishment. o Storage: This is the process through which data/information is stored in the database for future use. o Username: the username is the name that a staff creates or want to be identified with. o Password: a password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to the system. o Registration: the action of registering a staff in the system for official purposes. o Report: to give an account of staff attendance. o Sign in: to mark/indicate to show that you are present. o Sign out: to mark/indicate to show you are leaving.