CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter emphasizes how the researchers derived from their materials and

methodology based on the objectives formulated to this study. The process established by the

researchers also discussed in this chapter.

3.1 Methodological Framework

3.1.1 Research Model for Project Development

An Agile Development method as shown in figure 1 is used for the design and

development of the automated locking system. This method is an incremental, iterative sequence

of activities. The process includes planning, requirement gathering, analysis and design,

prototype development, and prototype testing and evaluation. The first step of the research model

is the system analysis and design followed by the prototype development and finally the

prototype testing and evaluation.

 Figure 1. Agile Development Method Research Model

3.2 Planning

3.2.1 Timeline and Activities for Project Management

Software Development is a huge procedure to work on. Thus, planning for actions must

be done to ensure the success of the study. Figure 2 represents the schedule of procedures that

the researchers have deliberated.

 Figure 2. System Development Gantt chart

3.3 Requirements Gathering

When all the necessary technology components and requirements needed for the

development of the system are identified successfully, the researchers will now proceed to the

next procedure, the requirements gathering. In this procedure, all of the technological

components and requirements identified to be useful for the software and hardware components

of the proposed system are gathered accordingly.

3.5.1 Hardware/Software Tools and Frameworks

For the development of the system, the researchers will use a number of software

packages and device components which are gathered and classified into two categories, the

software, and the hardware.

3.5.1.1 Software components

The software components that are essential for this study are as follows:

Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

The open-source Arduino Software (IDE) makes it easy to write code and upload it to the

board. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The environment is written in Java and based

on Processing and other open-source software. This software can be used with any Arduino

board.

C (Programming language)

A general-purpose, imperative computer programming language, supporting structured

programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion, while a static type system prevents many

unintended operations.

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

PHP is a server scripting language and a powerful tool for making dynamic and

interactive Web pages.

XAMPP Version 7.0.13

XAMPP is a free and open source cross-platform web server solution stack package

developed by Apache Friends, consisting primarily Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database,

and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages. XAMPP stands

for Cross-Platform (X), Apache (A), MariaDB (M), PHP (P) and Perl (P).

AngularJS

AngularJS is a ​JavaScript​-based ​open-source front-end ​web framework mainly

maintained by ​Google and by a community of individuals and corporations to address many of

the challenges encountered in developing ​single-page applications​.

Bootstrap 4

Bootstrap is an open source toolkit for developing with HTML, CSS, and JS. Quickly

prototype your ideas or build your entire app with our Sass variables and mixins, responsive grid

system, extensive pre-built components, and powerful plugins built on jQuery.

MySQL Database

MySQL is a freely available open source Relational Database Management System

(RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). SQL is the most popular language for

adding, accessing and managing content in a database. It is most noted for its quick processing,

proven reliability, ease and flexibility of use.

3.5.1.2 Hardware components

Arduino Microcontroller

The physical ​programmable circuit board component of the Arduino platform which used

for building electronics projects. It is the physical board where computer codes are uploaded.

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source that emits light when current flows

through it.

Fingerprint Sensor

Is a fingerprint recognition devices for computer security equipped with the fingerprint

recognition module featuring with its superior performance, accuracy, durability based on unique

fingerprint biometric technology. Fingerprint Reader / Scanner is a very safe and convenient

device for security instead of a password that is vulnerable to fraud and is hard to remember.

Servo Motor

It is an electrical device, which can push or rotate an object with great precision. It is just

made up of simple motor that run through a servo mechanism (a typical closed-loop feedback

control system).

Keypad
 Is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which bear digits, symbols or alphabetical

letters. Pads mostly containing numbers are called a numeric keypad​.

Exit/Open Button

The purpose of the button is to send a signal to the microcontroller to unlock the door.

The button is set inside the computer laboratory for emergency occurrences.

Jump wire

A jump wire is an electrical wire, or group of them in a cable, with a connector or pins at

each end, which is normally used to interconnect the components of a breadboard or other

prototype or test circuit, internally or with other equipment or components, without soldering.

LCD (liquid crystal display) 2x16

A liquid-crystal display is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical

device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals.

3.4 Analysis and Design

 The design and development of the entire system consisting of two parts which are the

hardware and software. This process involves analysis to identify the necessary procedures

needed in the development of the system.

3.4.1 General Workaround of the Entire System

The researchers provided a context diagram in order to explain the general workaround of

the system and its entities.

Figure 3. System Workaround Context diagram

 As shown in figure 3, there are two entities present, the superuser (Lab Technician) and

the user (Faculties). The superuser is privileged to add and delete users in the system’s database.

Users can only send fingerprint images and verify authentication through the system verification

module.

3.4.2 Overall Procedures of the System’s Software Component

The procedures of the system’s software are implemented in the overall flowchart

presented in figure 4. The system is initialized to implement specific tasks such as checking the

validity of user authentication and locking or unlocking procedure. The process starts at the

initialization of the system. The process is made up of two modes; the user and admin mode. In

the user mode, the user sends fingerprint images to the system. The system then verifies the

input, if the verification succeeds, the LED flashes green light and then the unlocking task

module initiates. Otherwise, the LED flashes red and the process loops back into the beginning.

In the admin mode, the admin is given the capability to add or delete user from the system’s

database.
 Figure 4. System’s Software Procedures Flowchart

3.4.3 System Architecture for Hardware Component

In figure 5, a system architecture is provided in order to explain each part of the system’s

hardware and its environment. The hardware component is divided into three sections; the

sensors, microcontroller and the locking/unlocking mechanism. The sensor sends signals into the

microcontroller. The fingerprint sensor sends the fingerprint images from users to the control
unit of the system for the verification of the user authentication. The button serves as a trigger to

unlock the door from the inside in case of emergency occurrences such as people getting locked

up inside the laboratory. A keypad is an alternative tool used for pin inputs in case the fingerprint

verification fails. The microcontroller is the main control unit of the system in which logical

processes occurs. It verifies the signals sent from the sensors and then sends commands to the

locking/unlocking mechanism after successful verification. The servo motor acts as a tool for

locking and unlocking the door and the LED flashes red or green light accordingly.

Figure 5. System’s Hardware Component Architecture

3.4.4 Database Design Model

The entity sets of the system were stored in MySQL version 7. Figure 6 represents the

entities of the system

 Figure 6. Entity Relationship Diagram

In figure 6 shown above, is the entity relationship diagram. There are a total of nine (9)

tables namely tbl_admin, tbl_position, tbl_person, tbl_course, tbl_schedule, tbl_day, tbl_room,

tbl_lock_unlock and tbl_sem. Table 1 describes each of these entities or tables.

Table name Description

tbl_admin Stand as storage of the administrator account in the system.

These data composed of admin_id, username, password,
firstname and lastname.

tbl_person Stand as storage of all registered user in the system. These

data composed of person_id, firstname, lastname, gender,
pos_id and pincode. The pos_id is a foreign key that
referenced to tbl_position table. The position will stand as the
base restriction of the page as well as to identify the type of
users.
 tbl_course Stand as storage of all the courses or subject. These data
composed of course_id, cource_code, and course_desc.

tbl_schedule Stand as storage of all the schedules of instructors in every

semester. These data composed of primary key schedule_id,
day_id, start_at, end_at, course_id, room_id, section,
person_id, sem_id. These tables were dependent on
tbl_course, tbl_day, tbl_room, tbl_person, and tbl_sem.

tbl_day Stand as storage of days. These data composed of primary key

day_id and day_desc.

tbl_room Stand as storage of all the rooms registered in the system.

These data composed of room_id, room_name, room_status,
and room_abb.

tbl_lock_unlock Stand as storage for all the transactions in the system. It will
be the locking and unlocking process where the current user is
recorded. These data composed of primary key
lock_unlock_id, date, room_id, person_id, action,
time_of_action and sem_id. This table was dependent on
tbl_room, tbl_person, and tbl_sem.

tbl_sem Stand as storage of all the semesters. These data composed of

sem_id and sem_name.

tbl_position Stand as storage of all the person position. These data

composed of primary key pos_id and pos_type.

Table 1. Automated Door Locking System Entities and Description

3.5 Prototype Development

With the implementation of the system analysis and design, the process proceeded to the

development of the system prototype. It involves the creation of the early sample or mockup of

the system the researchers aim to develop including the software and hardware components.
3.5.1

3.6 Prototype Testing

This section discusses the method used by the researchers to test the usability of the

system.

Conducting an assessment based on the capability of the system helps the researchers

foresee how effective and efficient the system is. With the help of the participants, the result of

the assessment can be achieved. The participants selected by the researchers are the following:

ten (10) College of Computing and Information Sciences (CCIS) faculty members that have a

class in the computer laboratory for the current semester; and the two (2) technicians that are

currently working in the computer laboratory. In evaluating the effectiveness of the system, the

researchers assess how capable the system’s verification process to identify the authorized

personnel. The assessment is divided into two phases: (1) verification of the unregistered

personnel and (2) verification of the registered personnel. In phase 1, the verification process of

the system assessed in identifying the unauthorized personnel. To complete this phase the

unregistered participants must attempt to login in the system just by putting the finger into the

fingerprint scanner. Once the participant/s finished they can proceed to the second phase. In

phase 2, the verification process of the system in identifying the authorized personnel was

assessed. In this phase, the participants will be registered in the system, same with the first phase,

the participants must attempt to login in the system in order to achieve the desired result of the

researchers. Moreover, this assessment focuses on how successful the system to recognize the

authorized and unauthorized personnel.

 In addition, researchers also considered the process of producing the desired result, which

is the verification of the authorized personnel. In this matter, evaluating the efficiency of the

system is necessary. The evaluation of the efficiency of the system focuses on the number of

attempts of putting the personnel’s finger on the fingerprint scanner before the system

verification mechanism recognizes the authorized personnel. During the process of the second

phase in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the system. The evaluation of the efficiency of the

system were already assessed by the researchers.

A table is shown below (Table 1), will be used as a tool to assess the evaluation of the

system that the researchers aim to conduct.

Phase 1 (not yet registered) Phase 2 (already registered)

Participants
No. of
Pass Fail Pass Fail
Trials
Participant 1
Participant 2
Participant 3
Participant 4
Participant 5
Participant 6
Participant 7
Participant 8
Participant 9
Participant 10
Participant 11
Participant 12

Total
Table 1. Testing and evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency of the system prototype