Design and development of home-grown biometric fingerprint device and software for attendance and access control

Abstract

This study details the design, development, and deployment of an Android-based Biometric Fingerprint system tailored for institutional access control, attendance tracking, exam monitoring, and staff management. Developed collaboratively by the Innovation Centre and departments across engineering and information and communication technology (ICT), the system integrates custom hardware and software. Hardware includes fingerprint sensors connected to an ATMEGA8 microcontroller and Android interfaces for portability. The software uses modular architecture, comprising a Kotlin-based mobile app with Jetpack Compose, a Laravel-powered web admin panel, and a secure backend API hosted on a virtual private server (VPS). Fingerprint data is safely stored using base64 encoding, enabling accurate user authentication and real-time tracking. A functional prototype was built, tested, and refined, with 95 units deployed in a pilot phase. The system supports multiple fingerprint profiles, secure data handling, and integration with existing institutional platforms. Emphasizing customization, modularity, and adherence to ICT policies, the research also serves as a training tool for staff and students, enhancing operational efficiency and supporting local technology development. Performance evaluation showed a FAR of 0.5%, FRR of 1.2%, and an average authentication time of 2.3 seconds. Post-deployment, student attendance increased by 15%, fee compliance by 10%, and 89% of users rated the system as easy to use. This work demonstrates effective hardware-software co-design for scalable biometric authentication in educational settings.