2012 International Conference on System Engineering and Technology

September 11-12, 2012, Bandung, Indonesia

Face Recognition Based on Auto-Switching

Magnetic Door Lock System Using
Microcontroller

Harnani Hassan*1 Raudah Abu Bakar*2 Ahmad Thaqib Fawwaz Mokhtar*3

*Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Universiti Teknologi MARA
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor
EMAIL: harnani_hassan@yahoo.com
EMAIL: raudah14@yahoo.com
EMAIL: ahmadthaqib87@gmail.com

AbstractFace recognition system is widely used for human
identification due to its capability to measure and subsequently
identifies human identification especially for security purposes.
This paper presents the development of Graphical User Interface
(GUI) based on face recognition system and Peripheral Interface
Controller (PIC) as an input/output carrier to switch on/off
magnetic lock for door lock security system. The development is
implemented by interfacing GUI built in MATLABR2009a with
microcontroller to auto-switching magnetic lock for door lock
security system. USB serial communication is used to interface
between GUI and PIC microcontroller that allows input data
transmission from GUI to microcontroller. The developed system
shows that the auto-switching mode transmission being
implemented via PIC microcontroller and USB serial
communication cable. It was also found that GUI can successfully
switch on and off the magnetic lock when an authorized image
from GUI database is identified.
Keywords Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC);
microcontroller; Graphical User Interface (GUI); MATLAB;
I. INTRODUCTION
The securities currently become a very important issue and
this is why a lot of security systems have been purpose using
an important process such as recognition especially for
building access controls [1]. Face recognition is one example
of process that improves the security application for building
access control. The advantage of using face recognition
instead of other identification process such as iris or
fingerprint identification is because it least intrusive and more
secure [2]. The development of GUI-based face recognition
system for door lock control using microcontroller is an
example of security system for building access control. The
process start by creating a new template based on user face
information. This template is compared to the template exist in
database, and if the template match within a set tolerance,
access to the desire resource is granted the signal being send
through communication port to microcontroller[3].
Nowadays, building security has become one of the
important issues to deal with [2]. Many identification
processes have been introduced to improve security system for
building access control such as face recognition, iris and
finger identifications. Compared to others, face recognition is
less intrusive and more secure [4]. Initially a new template
will be created based on users face information. The created
template will be compared with the existed template in the
database. Access will only be granted if the matching features
between both templates are within the set of tolerance.
Many methods can be applied in face recognition system.
One of them is Eigenfaces. This method works when the face
images are projected onto a face space (feature space) which
best defines as the variation of the known test images. The
face space is defined by the eigenfaces which are the
eigenvectors of the set of faces. Then the person identification
is obtained by comparing the projection of new image in
feature space with the available projection of training set
image [4]. The use of GUI can greatly simplify the process. It
can speed up the users work, so that users no need to look up
the command line to run the program or the system. All the
algorithms for GUI and eigenfaces recognition method are
build using MATLABR2009a.
Microcontrollers are used in this project because of its high
speed performance, low-cost and programming flexibility. As
a standard computer, the microcontroller also consists of CPU,
ROM, I/O ports and timer. However, they are designed to
execute only single specific task to control a single system.
Furthermore, PIC16F877A microcontroller has a built in
universal synchronous asynchronous receiver transmitter
(USART) hardware that allows direct communication with
personal computer [5]. The USART module has two modes of
operations: synchronous (requires a synchronized clock

978-1-4673-2376-5/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

between the transmitter and receiver) and asynchronous (no
synchronization clock required). The USART is most
commonly use in asynchronous mode.
This paper is divided into several sections. Section 2 briefly
explains the system development method. Section 3 explains
about minimum circuitry used in hardware implementation.
Section 4 presents the development of door lock system
circuitry using microcontroller. Section 5 describes the
microcontroller programming development. Section 6 explains
the development of graphical user interface (GUI) using
MATLAB software. Section 7 provides the results and
discussion and finally Section 8 concludes the overall work
done.
III. PIC 16F877A MICROCONTROLLER
The PIC16F877A microcontroller with up to 8k x 14 words
of flash memory is used in this system. It has 368 x 8 bytes of
Data Memory and 256 x 8 bytes of EEPROM Data memory. It
is powered by 5V DC power supply and it also consists of 33
I/O pins [4]. The minimum circuitry for PIC16F877A is
presented in Figure 2. As shown in Figure 2, Port 1 is the
Master Clear input which can reset the PIC while 20 MHz
crystal oscillator and 2 units of 22 pF capacitor are used to
make the IC works.

II. METHODOLOGY

The developed system is divided into two parts. As shown

in Figure 1 the first part of the system is GUI based face
recognition system and the second part is microcontroller
hardware implementation. The GUI based face recognition
system functions as the master control slave unit for
microcontroller PIC16F877A. In this system, a recognized
image is transformed into 8 bit signal as an ASCII code
through serial communication port to microcontroller circuit.
Then, the serial signal is converted into CMOS level signals
using MAX232. The received signal will be analyzed by the
microcontroller to lock or unlock the magnetic lock.

Figure 2. PIC 16F877A minimum circuitry

MAX232 is a serial RS232 to TTL/CMOS level converter

which converts +/-10 V serial RS232 signal to TTL/CMOS
level 0 to 5V. This connection is important to allow the
communication between laptop and PIC microcontroller [6].
Since most laptop nowadays does not have serial
communication port therefore, USB to DB9 converter is
suitable for the proposed design. Figure 3 below shows the
circuit diagram and connection of USB serial communication
to MAX232 circuit.

Figure 3. USB serial communication to MAX232 circuit

Figure 1. Flow chart of proposed Door Lock System

 IV. DOOR LOCK SYSTEM

The magnetic lock unit is controlled by PIC16F877A as

shown in Figure 4. The microcontroller enables various
functions of ports such as digital I/O. Additionally analog
input and USART port for serial communication are regulated
by the microcontroller.

Figure 4. Schematic diagram of door lock system

To fulfill the requirement for this system, a prototype circuit

is developed to control the magnetic lock. The designed circuit
received serial signal from MAX232 circuit at RC6. Then, the
switching transistor 2N2222 is turned ON whenever face is
being identified at output pin RD2. Pin RD1 is set to turn on
the LED whenever image is identified. This system only used
transmitter at pin (RD6) instead of using transmitter and
receiver. This is because the system only received a
transmitted data from GUI. This circuit is designed with 20-
MHz external crystal oscillator for faster execution time.

V. MICROCONTROLLER PROGRAMMING

Figure 5. Flow chart of PIC microcontroller algorithm.

PIC16F877A is a programmable microcontroller, a serial
programming and reprogramming with a flash memory
capability [7]. The whole process of controlling input and
output of the system is developed in C programming
language. The developed programming consists of desired
delay, input original state setting with provided
interchangeable serial data transmission technique using an
embedded USART. The developed programming used a
Mikroelectronika (mikroC) as a compiler. It provides
supporting tools for testing and debugging with helpful
software libraries [8]. The flow chart of the programming is
shown as in Figure 5.
VI. GUI DEVELOPMENT
A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is a pictorial interface
to a program. The implementation of GUI is important as it
allows user to choose what action should be taken and
performed by the system. Figure 6 shows the layout of GUI.
The developed GUI consists of 4 push buttons which are
Training Image, Testing Image, Delete Database and Exit
buttons. Each button perform different task. The GUI also
comes with two image boxes for image display and two text
boxes for text display.

Figure 6. Layout of Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Figure 7 shows the GUI development flow chart using
MATLABR2009a. In the flow chart, GUI is used as window
platforms for image recognition process.
Figure 7. GUI Development Flowchart
GUI window platform requires four push buttons for
interfacing process. The platform allows user to select image
in training image folder as a database. Then, the user is
allowed to choose image in testing image folder. The system
will either identify or match both images. After the
identification process, the information will be sent to the
microcontroller to switch the magnetic lock ON/OF.
VII. RESULT & DISCUSSION
Figure 8 shows the Testing image is matched with the
Training image that will turn OFF the magnetic lock at door
and subsequently allows user to enter the room. The
matched picture is the image chosen by user. The input
picture is the image traced by the system. In Figure 9, the
LED turned ON as an indicator the door is opened after
the image is identified by the system.
Figure 8. Training Image and Testing Image are matched.
Figure 9. LED is turned ON as an indicator the magnetic lock turns OFF.
Figure 10 shows the cases when the access is denied.
This is because the Testing image did not match with
training image in the database. The magnetic door remains
close or in ON condition until the recognition system
identify a recognize image. The LED turned OFF as an
 indicator the door remains close after the image is failed to
be recognized by the system as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 10. Training Image and Testing Image doesnt match.
Figure 11. LED is turned OFF as an indicator the magnetic lock remains to
turn ON.
Figure 12 shows the ASCII A character transmitted from
GUI to the Microcontroller. Microcontroller turned off the
magnetic lock when it received character A from GUI. The
microcontroller compares its reference ASCII code character
with the data received from the GUI and switched off the
switching transistor when the character received matched with
the character saved in microcontroller.
Figure 12. Serial signal of ASCII A character transmitter form GUI.
Transmitted data from GUI are transformed into an
asynchronous form. Then, the data are divided into frames in
byte size. The transmitted data from GUI only used 7 bits of
data frame with the 8th bit of data frame referred as the parity
bit for error checking purpose. Figure 12 shows the serial
signal before it being converted into CMOS level therefore the
voltage level is +/- 6.24V and -6.24V represent logic 1 while
+6.24V represent 0.
Figure 13 shows an overall system where the magnetic lock
automatically turns OFF when it identify an authorized
image from GUI database. Users were given 4seconds to
access the door before the magnetic lock turn ON and lock
the door.
Figure 13. Overall system of GUI based face recognition system for door
lock control using microcontroller.
VIII. CONCLUSION
The GUI based face recognition system for door lock
control using microcontroller has been developed in this study.
All related work lead to the completion of the study, including
the development of GUI based face recognition system and
auto-switching magnetic lock mechanism with
microcontroller.
 The performance and functionality of the designed system
showed that the transmission of data from GUI to
microcontroller is successfully done after the image is
recognized. The system can be improved to become fully
automatic face recognition system by adding another feature
that automatically capture image with a sensor when there is
human presence at the entrance area.

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