Now, Osmania University to use FRS to restrict unauthorized persons entry into mess

Facial recognition, CCTV cams integrated with AI and ML at mess facilities will capture images of students

Hyderabad: The Osmania University (OU) has decided to use cutting edge technologies as a means to record attendance, besides cutting down the entry of unauthorized persons at the mess facilities.

Equipped with facial recognition systems (FRS), the CCTV cameras integrated with AI and ML at mess facilities will soon capture the images of students availing the mess and synchronize details like name, roll number and mess number with the available database.

The new initiative will come with two benefits for the university administration – recording attendance and monitoring those availing the mess facilities. It also helps the mess management in cases of impersonation or if students make false claims of not availing the facility despite taking the same. Presently, officials at the mess mark attendance in the registers against students’ mess number.

“The university has decided to integrate facial recognition systems into surveillance cameras which will be installed in the mess facilities. This new system will be implemented from this academic year itself,” a senior official said.

Presently, the university campus including colleges and various buildings is under cover of 808 CCTV cameras. Another 215 cameras are proposed to be installed in uncovered areas.

Harvesting technology, the university in another initiative has drawn plans to implement geo-attendance through a mobile application, doing away with biometric attendance which is time consuming.

The administration is in talks with a company for the mobile application that scans the entire class at a single go and captures images of students. These images are then synchronized with details including photo, name and roll number available in the database and attendance is recorded. It also marks the longitude and latitude of the building where the attendance is recorded.

“Each student takes at least 10 seconds to record their attendance through biometric machines. With a single scan, this mobile app captures attendances of the entire class in just 90 seconds. On a pilot basis, this new initiative will be implemented in the university engineering college,” OU Vice Chancellor Prof. D Ravinder told Telangana Today.

New centenary admin building to come up

Enabling easy access for outsiders besides depicting the legacy of the over 100 year old brand of Osmania University (OU), the university is establishing a new centenary administrative building opposite to the IICT Main gate. The foundation stone will be laid this week.

The G 2 floor building will come up in over 2 lakh sft at a cost of Rs.33.75 crore and funds will be shared by the university and the State government. The Telangana State Education and Welfare Infrastructure Development Corporation will be executing the works.