TapID- NFC Based Digital Attendance System

Abstract

Automated student/employee record tracking presents a demanding requirement of low-latency, fault-tolerant, and secure identity verification. Attendance tracking methods that use manual paper registration, barcode scanning, and optical biometric fingerprint scanning are subjected to a variety of administrative liabilities including physical wear, contamination risks, and proxy attendance. This paper describes the design of the Rapid Near Field Communication-based Attendance Management System (TapID), end-to-end architecture, and real-time implementation of the system. The system features high-frequency ISO/IEC 14443 Type A NFC transponders, ESP32 embedded microcontroller gateway, and the cloud-based full-stack backend (Node.js, Express, MySQL, ReactJS). The solution enables instant identity verification through the lecture-specific attendance-taking procedure. The system utilizes both the hardware-level cryptographic UID verification and the dynamic teacher-controlled session initiation mechanism to prevent relay attacks and unauthorized UID impersonation. The experiments have shown that the attendance recording procedure has a 248 ms average time-to-record, a 99.8% successful tag reading rate at 0-4 cm distance, and zero lost instructional time compared to the traditional roll call method.

Introduction

Accurate attendance management is essential in educational institutions and training centers. Traditional methods, such as manual roll calls, paper-based sign-in sheets, barcode scanners, and fingerprint recognition systems, often suffer from time consumption, human errors, proxy attendance, hygiene concerns, and slow processing during peak hours. These limitations create a need for a fast, secure, and automated attendance management system.

The proposed TapID (NFC-Based Attendance Management System) uses Internet of Things (IoT) technology and Near Field Communication (NFC) to simplify attendance recording. The system integrates an ESP32 microcontroller, an RC522 RFID reader, NFC/RFID identification cards, an OLED display, LEDs, and a buzzer with a cloud-based web application. A Node.js and Express backend, MySQL database, and ReactJS frontend support centralized attendance management and real-time synchronization.

In the proposed system, each student is assigned a unique NFC/RFID card. Faculty members initiate attendance sessions for specific lectures through a web portal. When students tap their cards on the reader, the ESP32 communicates with the backend to validate the card and record attendance for the active session. Security mechanisms, including card identification verification, cryptographic checks, session control, and role-based access, are intended to reduce duplicate entries and unauthorized attendance. The OLED display, LEDs, and buzzer provide immediate feedback for successful, duplicate, or invalid card scans.

The system supports three main user roles: administrators, faculty members, and students. Administrators can manage user profiles, subject allocations, timetables, IoT devices, and system settings. Faculty members can start and end attendance sessions, monitor attendance records, and manage lecture-wise attendance. The centralized database stores student information and attendance records, while reporting tools allow authorized users to analyze and export attendance data in CSV or Excel formats.

The main objectives and advantages of TapID include:

• Automated attendance recording: Reduces dependence on manual roll calls and paperwork.

• Fast identification: Enables students to record attendance by tapping their identification cards.

• Improved attendance security: Uses card validation and teacher-controlled sessions to help prevent unauthorized entries and proxy attendance.

• Centralized data management: Maintains organized student, faculty, subject, timetable, and attendance records.

• Real-time monitoring: Allows faculty and administrators to access attendance information through a web dashboard.

• Immediate feedback: Uses visual and audio indicators to communicate scan results.

• Reporting and analysis: Supports attendance monitoring and exporting records for administrative purposes.

• Reduced administrative workload: Saves instructional time and simplifies attendance management.

The reported system performance includes an average attendance recording time of 248 milliseconds and a 99.8% successful read rate. These figures indicate promising performance under the reported test conditions, although broader testing would be necessary to establish reliability in different environments.

Conclusion

The TapID system presents an effective solution to the academic attendance management problem, addressing the key requirements through an automated approach that combines the IoT edge devices with a web platform as the central authority. The application fully integrates multiple roles, ranging from instructors and faculty members to IoT devices, attendance directory management, automated processing, and control mechanisms within a single interface. As a result, React, Node.js, Express, and MySQL were utilized as primary backend and frontend technologies, JWT and access control mechanisms were implemented to ensure secure communication between clients and the server. In general, the system was engineered to eliminate the need for paper-based roll call systems while also reducing human-related errors and overhead significantly. The system enforces immediate synchronization of attendance information between the server and the clients, thus enabling real-time OLED and buzzer feedback and preventing duplicates. Moreover, instant reporting and CSV/Excel export of attendance-related data contribute to enhanced control over the defaulter list and better administrative management within the department. Overall, the project showcases the potential of full-stack software solutions combined with low-cost IoT devices to address a common use case in academic settings. Future developments could include the addition of native mobile applications to further simplify the process and leverage alternative biometric authentication methods, such as facial recognition. More complex algorithms could be utilized for statistical analysis, while the system could be extended to support multiple departments and institutions.

References

[1] Yulia Darmi, Arbi Satria Utama, Dedy Abdullah, Marhalim, Robby Rizky & Danielli Araújo Lima, “A Multi-Modal IoT-Based Attendance System Using RFID and WhatsApp Notification for Smart Academic and Healthcare Environments”. Journal of Intelligent Computing & Health Informatics, Vol. 6 2025 [2] Dhanush C., Sumit Singha Chowdhury & Aparna K. Shekadar. “Automated Attendance System using RFID and IoT”. Journal of ISMAC, Vol. 7, Published: 29 July 2025 [3] Cliver Oliver Turpo Benique. “School Attendance Control System Based on RFID Technology with Raspberry Pi and Arduino: EDURFID”. arXiv preprint, arXiv:2507.14191, Published: 14 July 2025 [4] Dr. Apurva Yadav, Pradhnesh Dalvi & Harshal Juwale, “RFID-Based Attendance Management System Using ESP32 and Google Sheets”. The Voice of Creative Research, Vol. 7 Published: 30 April 2025 [5] S. Patel and M. Rajput, \"Development of a Cloud-Connected IoT Gateway for Academic Infrastructure using ESP32,\" IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 9845-9853, June 2021. [6] Nurul Afiqah Azri Mazlan & Ruzita Ahmad, “I-Attend: A Smart Attendance System for Secondary Schools Using RFID”. Journal of Computing Research and Innovation, Vol. 10 Published: 6 March 2025.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Mrs. Reena Dewangan, Harshal Vidhate, Dootiballav Saha, Anurag Joshi, Suyash Hanumante, Aditya Darne, Sanskar Gaddewar. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.