AI-Based Smart Classroom Attendance System using Face Recognition with CCTV Camera

Abstract: Manual attendance in classrooms is time-consuming, error-prone and open to proxy marking. This paper presents an AI-based smart attendance system that uses a CCTV camera and face recognition to mark student attendance automatically. Live classroom video is split into frames, faces are detected and converted into numerical face encodings, and the encodings are matched against those of registered students. A recognised student is marked present with date and time, duplicate entries within a session are prevented, and unknown faces are ignored. Records are stored in MongoDB, and a web dashboard supports student registration, live attendance, and Excel report generation. Unit tests of ten core functions all passed. The system offers a contactless, low-cost and scalable alternative to manual roll calls.

Keywords: Face recognition, Smart attendance, CCTV, Computer vision, OpenCV, Artificial intelligence, MongoDB.