Looking for a real-time attendance system using facial recognition? This post will guide you through building a simple but effective Face Recognition Attendance System using Python, Django, and OpenCV

🧰 Tech Stack Overview

🧩 Core Features

• Student face registration via webcam
• Face recognition with real-time webcam feed
• Attendance stored daily in CSV files
• Trainable model (LBPH Face Recognizer)
• No need for admin panel or database

🔧 Key Functionalities

1. register_student(request)

Allows students to register their ID and Name, and capture 20 face images using a webcam.

Highlights:

• Faces detected using Haar Cascade
• Manual image capture ('c' key)
• Saves data to StudentDetails.csv

2. train_model(request)

Trains the model using the LBPH (Local Binary Pattern Histogram) algorithm from OpenCV.

Highlights:

• Reads all images from TrainingImage/
• Converts to grayscale using Pillow
• Detects faces and associates with ID
• Saves model as trained_model.yml

3. take_attendance(request)

Real-time face recognition and attendance marking.

Highlights:

• Loads trained model and student data
• Detects faces, predicts ID, fetches Name
• Avoids duplicate entries per session
• Saves daily CSV in Attendance/

CSV Format:

pgsqlCopy codeID, Name, Date, Time

4. view_attendance(request)

Displays attendance for the current date on a simple HTML page.

Highlights:

• Reads CSV for today’s date
• Renders a table in attendance.html
• Shows empty state if no attendance file exists

📂 File Structure Snapshot

pgsqlCopy codemedia/
├── TrainingImage/
├── Attendance/
│   └── Attendance_YYYY-MM-DD.csv
└── StudentDetails.csv

recognition/
├── views.py
├── trained_model.yml
├── haarcascade_frontalface_default.xml

templates/
├── index.html
├── register.html
└── attendance.html

🚀 Usage Flow

1. Navigate to /register/ and register student face
2. Go to /train/ and train the face recognition model
3. Use /take_attendance/ to mark attendance
4. Check /view_attendance/ to see today’s attendance

📝 Thoughts

This lightweight system is great for small-scale projects and educational purposes only. You can extend it by:

• Adding email notifications after attendance
• Integrating student login system
• Visualizing attendance stats