Virtual Booth

SMART ATTENDANCE AUTOMATION SYSTEM USING NFC 

Dary Muhadzdzib bin Rosmadi¹, Hasya Nur Iman bt Herman², Arissa Bt Hasrul Helmy³

¹²³MRSM Tun Abdul Razak, Pekan, Pahang

^*Corresponding author: noor.diyana@mara.edu.my

Abstract

Manual attendance recording in educational institutions is often time-consuming, error-prone, and limited in real-time accessibility, which can also allow proxy attendance. To address these issues, this project proposes a Smart Attendance Automation System using NFC, integrating IoT features for automated student identification and centralized logging. The system is built around an ESP32-2432S028 microcontroller with a touchscreen display, connected to a PN532 NFC reader operating at 13.56 MHz. Upon scanning a student card, the device provides immediate audible and visual confirmation using an MH-FMD buzzer and a 5 mm red LED, based on the card’s unique UID. For power and operation, the unit uses a 3.7V 3000 mAh LiPo battery with a TP4056 charging module and an MT3608 boost converter to supply 5V. It supports Online Mode for real-time cloud synchronization and Manual (Offline) Mode for local storage during network disruptions. Attendance data are transmitted via HTTP POST using Google Apps Script to a Google Sheets backend and visualized through an HTML dashboard for administration. Field testing showed high reliability, with satisfaction scores of 4.50–4.83/5 and 100% of testers reporting faster check-ins. Suggestions for improvement include expanding network resilience and enhancing dashboard analytics. Overall, the low prototype cost (RM175.56) supports scalable and cost-effective adoption.

Keywords - Smart Attendance Automation, NFC Technology, ESP32 Microcontroller, Internet of Things (IoT), Google Sheets API