Internet-enabled Access Control System using a Mobile Application

The need to secure property or restrict entrance in special areas by controlling access to them has always been extremely important for life safety and personal assets, as well as those of the organizations. Different mechanical or electronic door locks are available today using keypads and passwords, RFID devices, biometric data, in order to prevent unauthorized access in homes, research labs, banks, stores, etc. This paper presents a secure access control system based on a Raspberry Pi3 model B board connected to Internet via the local area network. The system monitors in real-time the front of the door using a camera and face recognition features, and notify the system administrator if anyone spends time in front of the door more than a specified limit. Registered users have allowed access and may unlock the door through a mobile application, as the identification may be done by face recognition, password, or fingerprint, subject of availability. The system administrator also has access to the camera captured frames and may unlock the door remotely per request. A web server running on the Raspberry Pi3 embedded system maintain a local database containing the registered user list and related data, as well as a log file that provide the system administrator detailed information about any detected and recorded events.