Face recognition attendance
Enroll a student's face, run the camera dashboard, and read the recognition log. Includes what face recognition does not do.
Face recognition lets cameras identify students as they arrive and records each recognition. This page covers enrolling a student, running the cameras, and reading the log. Before you plan anything around it, know that a recognition is a log entry, not a mark on the class register. The section below explains what that means in practice.
Prerequisites
Face recognition is switched on per institution. If your school does not have it, Face Attendance will not be in your sidebar and student records will not show a Face Enrollment tab.
Beyond that:
- Enrolling a student's face needs Student Record access.
- The camera dashboard and the log need Attendance access.
- The device you use needs a working camera and permission to use it in the browser.
What face recognition is, and is not
A face recognition hit is a log entry, not a mark on the class register.
Recognizing a student at the gate does not mark them present in Attendance Entry. The two are separate records, and nothing carries one into the other. A teacher still marks the register.
Treat the recognition log as an arrival record you can review and export, not as a replacement for taking attendance.
Enrolling a student's face
A student has to be enrolled before any camera can recognize them.
Open the student from Student > Student Record and go to the Face Enrollment tab.
The panel shows the student's current state: Not enrolled yet, or Enrolled · {count} photos with an average quality score once photos exist.
To enroll:
- Pick the camera to capture from. The panel shows Camera active once the video feed is live.
- Click Capture repeatedly. The counter tracks your progress, and the guidance asks for Capture 10–20 photos.
- Click Save enrollment once you have at least 10. You'll see Face enrolled successfully.
The on-screen Guidelines are worth following, because they decide how well recognition works later:
- Ensure good lighting on the face
- Face should be clearly visible
- Remove glasses or face covering
- Look straight at the camera
- Keep a neutral expression
Vary the angle slightly between captures rather than taking 10 identical photos.
When a capture is refused
"No face detected, position your face in the frame" The camera cannot see a face. Check lighting and how far the student is standing from the lens.
"Multiple faces detected, make sure only one person is in the frame" Someone else is in shot. Clear the background and capture again.
Re-enrolling and clearing
Saving a new set of photos replaces the student's existing ones rather than adding to them. To re-enroll a student whose appearance has changed, capture a fresh set and save.
Clear face data removes everything for that student. The confirmation says: This deletes all enrolled face photos for this student. They will need to be re-enrolled. There is no undo.
Running the cameras
Go to Student > Face Attendance. The page describes itself as Live face-recognition attendance across all cameras.
Adding a camera
Under Cameras, use Add camera: give it a Camera name and an optional Location, then click Add camera. You'll see Camera added.
Before any camera exists the section reads No cameras configured yet. Add one to start recognizing faces.
Starting and stopping a feed
Each camera tile has Start and Stop. While a feed runs, recognized faces are boxed on the video and named. An unrecognized face is labelled Unknown.
The Recognized panel next to the feeds lists the most recent hits with a confidence percentage and a status chip:
- Matched: FEMS is confident who this is.
- Low confidence: a possible match that needs a human eye.
- Unknown: nobody recognized. These are never recorded.
This panel is a live view in your browser only. It holds the last 20 hits and empties when you reload the page. It is not the record. Today's log is.
Reading the log
Today's log is the stored record of recognitions. Set the Date range, click Apply, and the table shows Name, Recognized at, Confidence, Status, and Camera.
Export CSV downloads the filtered range.
Two limits worth knowing:
- Exports cover at most 31 days. A longer range is refused with Face attendance exports are limited to 31 days. Pull it in chunks.
- The To date has to be on or after From, otherwise you'll see From date must be on or before To date.
You cannot edit the log
There is no way to add, correct, or delete a recognition-log row. The recognition service writes these rows, and the screen is read-only by design. Update the separate class register if the attendance mark is wrong. Re-enroll the student if they are being misrecognized.
When something goes wrong
"Could not access the selected camera" The browser could not open the camera. Check that you granted camera permission, that no other application is holding the camera, and that the page is on HTTPS.
"Recognition failed. Check the camera and face-service connection." The recognition service did not answer. This is usually the service being down or unreachable rather than anything about the student. Raise it with whoever runs your FEMS installation.
A student is enrolled but never gets recognized. Re-enroll them with better lighting and more varied angles. Recognition quality depends heavily on the enrollment photos. Check the average quality score on their Face Enrollment tab.
The same student appears more than once in a few minutes. The same student and the same status is only recorded once every five minutes, so a student standing in front of a camera does not fill the log. A student sitting right on the confidence boundary can still produce a pair of rows close together, one Matched and one Low confidence, because those count as different statuses. That is a signal to re-enroll them.
A newly enrolled student isn't recognized straight away. The cameras work from a gallery of enrolled faces that refreshes periodically. Give it a minute after saving an enrollment.
"The selected camera is invalid." The camera was removed or switched off. Refresh the page and pick a current one.
Nothing works and the errors mention the face service. Face recognition depends on a separate service alongside FEMS. When it is unavailable, enrollment and recognition both stop while the rest of FEMS keeps working. This one is for your technical team.
FAQ
Does a recognition mark the student present? No. It writes a log entry only. Somebody still marks the class register in Attendance Entry.
How many photos should I capture? At least 10, and up to 20. You cannot save below 10.
Does re-enrolling add to the old photos? No, it replaces them. That is the right way to update a student whose appearance has changed.
Can parents or students see the recognition log? No. It is an admin screen.
What happens to a face the system doesn't know? It shows as Unknown on the live feed and is not recorded.