AUTOMATED CAFETERIA SOLUTION WITH AUTHENTICATION Paul Coleman Madison County Public Schools Technology Support Intern

2 OUTLINE Review specific problems facing schools Proposed solution to these problems Procuring needed project items How this solution came together Demonstration video Questions

3 INTRODUCTION School lunch programs are over- budgeted and mired in red ink. Students are forced to wait minutes in line and then gulp down their lunch. Parents can’t be sure of what their children are eating in their school cafeteria.

4 PROBLEM STATEMENT School cafeteria lines are generally inefficient; many cafeteria workers perform tasks that can be automated. Children are still paying with physical currencies. Parents should be more involved in the decision process.

5 PROPOSED SOLUTION A program that integrates biometric identification, the ease of touch screen food selection, while at the same time incorporating the use of automated s notifications to the parents, and automatic funds transfer from the child’s cafeteria account eliminating the need for a child to bring money to school

Program Functions Overview 6 Biometric identification using thin client-server database Parent controlled student debit account Eliminating need for physical currency Automated notifications Includes food selections and debit balance Touch screen interface Intuitive graphical user interface (GUI)

Biometric Research Reliability False positive or negatives Software support Freeware vs. Licensed Price Goes down as lot goes up Ease of integration into a school system 7

Visual Basic Research Can VB do everything? , database query, etc. Compatible software Biometrics, server Personal programming experience Online tutorials sample code 8

Client ANSMTP component SDK Send TEXT/HTML s Consists of: Imail IFastSender Functions in VB environment 9

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13 RESULTS Friendly, intuitive GUI Students don’t need passwords, ID’s, or money; just fingers Students get more time to eat Parents are involved more School saves money

14 CONCLUSIONS Biometrics are already in place in some schools, however integrating and debit transfers into the process is a new concept(?) Project was more code intensive than I anticipated, requiring a lot of independent research; good real world experience

15 FUTURE WORK Possible extensions? Suggestions for me? Thank you for your attention Permanent