Concept Description The performance of any organization is highly dependent on the presence or absence of employees at their place of work. In order to maintain regular presence, managers are forced to employ different methods of maintaining the employee attendance registers.
Of all the methods ever devised, Fernando Alonso Fernandez affirms that the fingerprint recognition attendance register is the most accurate one (Hernandez, 2009). Comparing the traditional method of manually writing down the names of employees in an attendance book with the method of using entry cards to unlock the door and now the era of using fingerprint recognition, the latter method is the one that most companies are resorting to in the current technological times (Hernandez, 2009). Before embarking on the whole concept of the fingerprint recognition, it is important to know what it means. This is a method of identifying an individual by using a fingerprint reader (Mishra, Trivedi, 2011). Once the system reads the fingerprint, it automatically records that the individual has been marked present within that particular session.
This record is then stored in the central database within the organization. The purpose of doing this research is to provide a reliable alternative to the organizations that find it tedious to take regular registers of their employees. This can be achieved through the fact that a fingerprint recognition system would require only the employees themselves at the machine and not many other people taking names (Mishra, Trivedi, 2011). Consequently, this will boost the presence of employees and as a result avoid absenteeism.
Secondly, the research seeks to utilize the uniqueness of the fingerprint to develop a very accurate attendance register for the organizations. The fact that some people share names makes it hard differentiate the people who have any points of similarity (Mishra, Trivedi, 2011). Finally, the research clearly shows that the security system of the organization would be improved tremendously, when the fingerprint recognition system is used over the other systems (Ravi, Raja, Venugopal, 2009). This is enhanced by the fact that anybody who enters the organization’s premises would have to be scanned by the fingerprint recognition and the result would be recorded in the database.
Much as it focuses on the employees’ attendance, it also helps to keep the organization safe from the unwanted visitors. System Design The employee attendance register can be designed in two major portions: the hardware and the software parts (Mishra, Trivedi, 2011).The hardware part of the syste includes all the physical components of the fingerprint recognition system. First of all, the organization needs a fingerprint scanner at all its entrances. These scanners would be used by every individual entering the premises by placing their finger on the scanner for detection. Once this is done, they are automatically registered present for that session.
Secondly, the organization would need a computer database and a central unit (Mishra, Trivedi, 2011). This is where all the records of all the employees are kept for the verification, whenever their fingerprints are detected in the system. Such system would be more like a server or a central unit that holds all the details of all employees, including their names, departments, designation and ultimately, their fingerprints to identify the person. Finally, all the scanners and the computers that maintain the system would need to be networked, so they are operated on one domain by the server (Mishra, Trivedi, 2011). This network is what is called a local area network (LAN). It enables the information to be shared to and from the server, so that a person can take the fingerprint attendance registration from any entry point of the organization.
The software part of the system involves all the programs that run the whole system. The initial stage of the software part is entering the images of all the employees’ fingerprints (Ravi, Raja, Venugopal, 2009). This image is called a template. Whenever a fingerprint is detected in the scanner, it is scanned through the system to check whether it matches any of the employees within the database and automatically marks that the employee is present.
The system works in a manner that Ravi, Raja and Venugopal depict, using the following block diagram (2009). The binarization stage codes the print into ones and zeros that is the normal computer language. The block filter makes the finger pattern better for the analysis. Minutiae extraction cuts out only the part that is necessary and ignores the extended parts of the finger image. The minutiae matching compares and contrasts all the records within the system with the one scanned, and finally the matching score picks out the finger that matches the one scanned.
Evaluation of the System This research paper will evaluate the performance of the fingerprint recognition system based on various aspects. These aspects are efficiency, reliability, security and effectiveness. In terms of efficiency, the fingerprint recognition system is the most efficient that can possibly be used in the current world (Jain, Pankanti, 2002). In specific terms, this system saves so much time in identifying the employees and registering them as bbeing present, as compared to taking a book register and then using it to write individual names. This is occasioned by the fact that is the only thing needed is an employee’s finger to be scanned. It is even more efficient by the fact that it is automatic and does not need more than one person to manage it at any entry scanner.
Therefore, it saves the labor and time. However, the initial installation of such system would cost the organization quite a big amount of money, since it requires initial installation of both hardware and software (Mishra, Trivedi, 2011). It is also reliable, since it is operated by a computer system. Unless it crushes and the backup information is lost, the data is always available for the organization’s management to be able to analyze the presence or absence rates of any given employee.
The automated system would be almost ideal in offering security to the register of all the employees (Bug, 2006). For instance, if we talk about those organizations that pay their employees based on their attendance, then such records cannot be manipulated in any way. At the same time, it is exposed to the risk of being hacked. However, the likelihood of it happening is very low. Finally, the fingerprint employee attendance register would be very effective.
Considering that the ultimate goal of the whole system is to ensure that there is a regular check of the employees, such a system would be almost perfect. This is because it would automatically identify the persons who have signed in through the entry scanner and then leave out all those who have not. This gives a total distinction between the group that was present and the one that was absent. On a demerit note, in case the finger pattern of an individual is altered, the system might fail to recognize the employees, and therefore fail to register their presence (Bug, 2006). Such a change in the pattern can be caused by such factors as hard labor or a burned finger.
ConclusionThe rate of the production of any organization would be measured by the individual contributions, offered by the employees. Automatically, the more dedicated an employee is, the more is their output in the organization. Therefore, a good employee attendance management system would act as a motivating factor towards achieving the ultimate presence of employee dedication that would translate to maximum production. Regardless of the costs incurred in the installation of the fingerprint attendance register, the benefits outshine this cost as well as any other demerit that can possibly come with the system. In addition, it is a user friendly system, where the employee interacts with the scanner only, rather than the other people.
Therefore, adapting such system would lead to the higher productivity of an organization.
