This project report is done at a BSc level course named microprocessor and i/o system. This was a group work project.

1. 1.Title: RFID Based Attendance System
2. ABSTRACT:
Most educational institutions' administrators are concerned about student irregular attendance.
Truancies can affect student overall academic performance. The conventional method of taking
attendance by calling names or signing on paper is very time consuming and insecure, hence
inefficient. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based attendance system is one of the
solutions to address this problem. This system can be used to take attendance for student in
school, college, and university. It also can be used to take attendance for workers in working
places. Its ability to uniquely identify each person based on their RFID tag type of ID card make
the process of taking the attendance easier, faster and secure as compared to conventional
method. Students or workers only need to place their ID card on the reader and their attendance
will be taken immediately. With real time clock capability of the system, attendance taken will
be more accurate since the time for the attendance taken will be recorded. The system can be
connected to the computer through RS232 or Universal Serial Bus (USB) port and store the
attendance taken inside database. An alternative way of viewing the recorded attendance is by
using HyperTerminal software. A prototype of the system has been successfully fabricated.
3. INTRODUCTION:
Radio frequency identification (RFID) refers to the use of radio frequency wave to identify and
track the tag implanted into an object or a living thing . It is a wireless mean of communication
that use electromagnetic and electrostatic coupling in radio frequency portion of the spectrum to
communicate between reader and tag through a variety of modulation and encoding scheme.
Modulation refers to the variation in the amplitude, frequency or phase of a high frequency
carrier signal to convey information. Encoding is a process of converting information from one
format to another. RFID system usually consists of RFID reader and tag. It is very useful because
it can uniquely identify a person or a product based on the tag incorporated. It can be done
quickly and this usually takes less than a second.
4. PROPOSED METHOD
RFID based attendance system consists of RFID Reader, RFID Tag, LCD display and
microcontroller unit. RFID can be interfaced to microcontroller through USART. Data is
transferred from RFID cards to reader and from there to microcontroller. Radio frequency
technology is used in many applications. RFID tags are of two types – 1) Passive Tags and 2)
Active Tags. Passive tags contain 13 digit number tag . inbuilt in it, where as active tag is
read/write tag i.e. one can read from the tag and write to the tag. This project uses passive tag. In

2. real time, one can issue active tags to the students, with their roll numbers as their tags. RFID
reader contains a copper winding in it. This winding acts as an antenna. When the tag is placed
near the reader, due to the induced mutual inductance energy, data is transferred to reader.
Reader then transfers data to the microntroller. Microcontroller checks for the data continuously,
if any data is received, microcontroller compares the data in data base.
Fig: Block Diagram of Proposed System
RFID based attendance system has very simple circuit design. The RFID Reader has transmit
and receive pins. These pins are connected to the transmit and receive pins of the micro
controller i.e. PD0 and PD1 pins of microcontroller.VCC is connected to 5v and GND is
connected to ground.If pins are not available to the module, connect it using DB9 connector.
PD0 pin is receiver and PD1 pin is transmitter. RFID module communicates with the controller
using USART, where USART is a communication protocol. USART is acronym for Universal
Synchronous and Asynchronous Receive and Transmit.Serial data can be transmitted from RFID
module to microcontroller using UART. ATmega8 microcontroller has USART registers
internally. One should declare these registers in order to transmit or receive data serially.LCD
display is connected to Port B of the microcontroller. Interfacing of LCD in 4 bit mode is in to
microcontroller which is shown in the circuit diagram. D4 – D7 data pins are connected to the
PB0 – PB3 pins of microcontroller.RS pin is connected to PB4, RW pin is connected to PB5 and
enable pin is connected to PB6 of microcontroller. To display data on LCD, initially set the LCD

3. in 4bit mode. Then make Rw pin low, RS pin high, enable pin high. Send the data on data pins
and make enable pin low.
5. RESULTS:
when users place the RFID card or tag near the reader then reader reads the data in the tag and
transmits to the controller. Microcontroller compares the tag with the database. If the tag is
matched LCD displays “authenticated” and takes attendance. If anyone place another card which
is not present in the database and check for authentication. Now LCD displays “Unauthorised”
and it will never take the attendance.
6.CONCLUSION:
RFID based attendance system consists of RFID Reader, RFID Tag, LCD display and
microcontroller unit. RFID can be interfaced to microcontroller through USART. Data is
transferred from RFID cards to reader and from there to microcontroller. When the tag is placed
near the reader, due to the induced mutual inductance energy, data is transferred to reader.
Reader then transfers data to the microntroller. Microcontroller checks for the data continuously,
if any data is received, microcontroller compares the data in data base.
REFFERENCES:
[1] www.electronicshub.org
[2] www.electronicshub.org/rfid-based-attendance-system
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