REAL-TIME RESERVATION SYSTEM FOR

UNIKL-MIIT

BY

NOR AZLINA BINTI ALI

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for

the degree of Master of Science in Computer and

Information Engineering

Kulliyyah of Engineering

International Islamic University Malaysia

MAY 2014

ii

ABSTRACT

Handling the room bookings is one of the critical aspects of ensuring the daily

operation of an organisation is effective and efficient. The current manual system of

room booking at UniKL-MIIT is unable to support the academics and academic

administration staffs to check the status of room whether occupied or available. The

Real-Time Reservation System (RTRS) which is developed for UniKL-MIIT provides

the flexibility of managing room reservation. The system is a web based application

that allows users to access the web and obtains real-time information through the web.

The target users for this application are the academics and the administration staffs.

The system has been developed using PHP programming language and MySQL for

the database. The Computer Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) is integrated to the system

to retrieve images using colour features. The system was tested using functional

testing by the academic and administrative staff to ensure that it meets all the

proposed requirements.

iii

ABSTRACUUUUUUT IN ARABIC

ت عبن ب ف ض ست ن سب ب احل ىا ى أحذ اجل غزف ع حجىساث ان عبيم ي خ انجىساث بيل حل ذوي احل ظبو ان ت . ان ظ ه ىي ن م ان ع فبءة ان وكغزف يف ف اإلدارة UniKL-MIITان ح يىظ ى ي ه بدر ع ري ق غغ ت ان قق ي حبن خح ت ان ني إيكب ت واالكبدمي بدمي ج األك سىاء كب ت رفق ق شي احل جىساث يف ان ظبو احل خبح . جىسة أو ي حم (RTRS) ذي انـ ز ن طى ت يف إدارة حجىساث UniKL-MIIT مت ح زو زامل ىف ح خ ج ح خز بكت اإل ش ى ه ق ع ب ط ى ح ظبو غزف. ان انهىيبث ع ى ي ه صىل ع ج واحل خز بكت اإل ش صىل إىل ى ني ان خخذي س ه نبل ج احل ىق غزف يف ان ئت حجىساث ان ف ج. ان خز بكت اإل ش ي ي خالل ف ني ويىظ ى االكبدمي ق ب ط خ ذا ان ني هل خخذي س ت ي امل خهذف س املت ربجم غت ان خخذاو ن س ب ظبو ب ز ان طى ت. مت ح بدمي و PHPاإلدارة األكMySQL نقبعذة انبببث. يف ذا انظبو مت دي خبصت اسخز ب انصىر اسخبدا إىلز ىح ب ك يت ث ( CBIR ) ان خخذاو وان س ب صىر ب خز ب ان س ذف اىل اف ي ىظ ببر ان خ ى االخ ه بء ع ظبو ب حص ان هى. مت ف شاث ان يببث ه ط خ ع امل فبء مج خ س ب ا ض ني ن ف اإلدارة واالكبدمي بم يىظ ق

خزحت. ق امل

iv

APPROVAL PAGE

I certify that I have supervised and read this study and that in my opinion, it conforms

to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and

quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Science in Computer and

Information Engineering.

…………………………………..

Amelia Wong Azman

Supervisor

I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable

standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a

dissertation for the degree of Master of Science in Computer and Information

Engineering.

…………………………………..

Teddy Surya Gunawan

Examiner

This dissertation was submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer

Engineering and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of

Master of Science in Computer and Information Engineering.

…………………………………..

Othman O. Khalifa

Head, Department of Electrical

and Computer Engineering

This dissertation was submitted to Kulliyyah of Engineering and is accepted as a

fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Computer and

Information Engineering.

…………………………………..

Md. Noor Bin Salleh

Dean, Kulliyyah of Engineering

v

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigation, except

where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently

submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.

Nor Azlina Binti Ali

Signature……………….……. Date …..........................................

vi

COPYRIGHT PAGE

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION

OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH

Copyright © 2014 by International Islamic University Malaysia. All rights reserved.

REAL-TIME RESERVATION SYSTEM FOR UNIKL-MIIT

No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder except

as provided below.

1. Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may

be used by others in their writing with due acknowledgement.

2. IIUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print

or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.

3. The IIUM library will have the right to make, store in a retrieval system

and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other

universities and research libraries.

Affirmed by Nor Azlina Binti Ali

……..……..…………… …………………..

Signature Date

vii

DEDICATION

This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, my husband, my childrens and my

supervisor for their love, endless support and encouragement.

viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“In the name of ALLAH, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”

Praise to Allah, the one and only, for giving a strength to complete this thesis. I wish

to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Amelia Wong Azman for

encouragement, guidance, valuable suggestion, comment, advice, support and concern

throughout the completion of this thesis.

My sincere appreciation also extends to my parents, my husband and family

members for their endless love and support.

Furthermore, I also would like to thank to my colleagues and others who have

provided assistance at various occasions.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract .................................................................................................................... ii Abstract in Arabic .................................................................................................... iii Approval Page .......................................................................................................... iv

Declaration ............................................................................................................... v Copyright Page ......................................................................................................... vi Dedication ................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. viii List of Tables ........................................................................................................... xi

List of Figures .......................................................................................................... xii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................... xiv

CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1 Introduction........................................................................................... 1 1.1

Problem Statements .............................................................................. 2 1.2

1.3 Research Questions ............................................................................... 3

1.4 Research Objective ............................................................................... 4 1.5 Research Scope ..................................................................................... 4

1.6 Research Significance ........................................................................... 5 1.7 Dissertation Structure ........................................................................... 5

CHAPTER TWO : LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................... 7 2.1 Introduction........................................................................................... 7 2.2 Real-Time Online Reservation System ................................................ 7 2.3 System Development Model................................................................. 9

2.3.1 Waterfall Model ...................................................................... 9 2.3.1.1 Requirement Analysis and Project Planning .................. 11

2.3.1.2 System Design ................................................................ 11 2.3.1.3 System Implementation .................................................. 11

2.3.1.4 System Integration and Testing ...................................... 11 2.3.1.5 System Deployment and Maintenance............................ 12

2.3.2 Spiral Model............................................................................ 12

2.3.3 Rational Unified Process (RUP) Model .................................. 15

2.4 Related Works on the Classrooms Reservation .................................... 18 2.5 Testing Strategies................................................................................... 23 2.6 Classification of Testing ....................................................................... 24

2.6.1 White Box Testing .................................................................. 24 2.6.2 Black Box Testing................................................................... 24 2.6.3 Usability Testing ..................................................................... 25

2.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 25

CHAPTER THREE : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................... 26 3.1 Research Method.................................................................................... 26

3.1.1 Inception ................................................................................. 27 3.1.2 Elaboration .............................................................................. 27

3.1.3 Construction ............................................................................ 28

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3.1.4 Transition ................................................................................ 29

3.2 System Development Resources ........................................................... 29 3.3 CBIR Proposed Framework .................................................................. 30

3.4 Algorithm CBIR Process ...................................................................... 35 3.5 Prototype Design Display ..................................................................... 37

3.5.1 Web Capture Page................................................................... 37 3.5.2 Login Page .............................................................................. 40 3.5.3 Main Menu Page ..................................................................... 41

3.5.4 Book A Room Menu Page ...................................................... 43 3.5.5 Administration Page................................................................ 47

3.5.5.1 Reservation Management Page ....................................... 48 3.5.5.2 User Management Page .................................................. 49

3.5.5.3 Room Management Page ................................................ 49 3.5.5.4 Subject Management Page .............................................. 50 3.5.5.5 Instructor Management Page .......................................... 51

3.5.5.6 Timetable Management Page .......................................... 52 3.5.5.7 Technician Management Page ........................................ 53

3.5.6 Account Page .......................................................................... 54 3.6 Implementation ..................................................................................... 54

3.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 55

CHAPTER FOUR : RESULT AND DISCUSSION ........................................... 56 4.1 Usability Testing Results ........................................................................ 56 4.2 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 63

CHAPTER FIVE : CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS ....................... 64 5.1 Conclusion of the study .......................................................................... 64 5.2 Limitation of the study............................................................................ 64

5.3 Future Development and Research ......................................................... 65

REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 66

APPENDICES ........................................................................................................ 68 Appendix A : Related Works On The Classrooms Reservation ................... 68 Appendix B : PHP Code ............................................................................... 75 Appendix C : Email Notification .................................................................. 78

Appendix D : Form (RNF/ADM/02) ............................................................ 79 Appendix E : Form (BEF/ADM/01) ............................................................. 80 Appendix F : Survey Form ........................................................................... 81

xi

LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Page No.

2.1 Comparison of advantages between Waterfall Model,

Spiral Model and Rational Unified Process (RUP) Model 17

2.2 Comparison of disadvantages between Waterfall Model,

Spiral Model and Rational Unified Process (RUP) Model 17

2.3 Comparison table between UMP, MMU, Nottingham University,

Malaysia campus and Kulliyyah of Engineering, IIUM 22

2.4 Description of testing strategies 24

3.1 List of software and its usefulness 29

3.2 Hardware requirement 30

3.3 Form based on the room condition 47

4.1 Statistic for room reservation system in UniKL-MIIT 57

4.2 Frequency analysis for Question 1 and Question 3 58

4.3 Frequency analysis for Question 2 58

4.4 Frequency analysis for Question 4 and Question 8 59

4.5 Frequency analysis for Question 5 and Question 9 59

4.6 Frequency analysis for Question 6 60

4.7 Frequency analysis for Question 7 60

4.8 Overall analysis 61

4.9 Comparison table between UMP, MMU, Nottingham University,

Malaysia campus, Kulliyyah of Engineering, IIUM and Real Time

Reservation System for UniKL-MIIT 62

xii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Page No.

2.1 Waterfall Model 10

2.2 Spiral Model 13

2.3 Rational Unified Model (RUP) model 15

2.4 University Malaysia Pahang (UMP) – Admin Page 19

2.5 University Malaysia Pahang (UMP) – User Main Resource Booking

System Page 19

2.6 Multimedia University (MMU) 20

2.7 Nottingham University, Malaysia campus 21

2.8 Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia

(IIUM) 21

2.9 Comparison of features between selected universities in Malaysia 23

3.1 Rational Unified Process phases 26

3.2 The Current System for Classroom Reservation System 28

3.3 Block diagram of CBIR system 31

3.4 Block diagram of UniKL-MIIT Room Reservation System Menu 31

3.5 User Flow Chart 33

3.6 Administration Flow Chart 34

3.7 Colour palette code 36

3.8 Web Capture Page 37

3.9 Fundamental colour qualifier 38

3.10 Available Room Layout Page 39

3.11 Login Page 40

3.12 Main Menu Page (Administration only) 41

xiii

3.13 Main Menu Page (page with reservation notification) 41

3.14 Main Menu Page (staffs and technicians) 42

3.15 Book A Room Page 42

3.16 Book A Room Type 43

3.17 Laboratories Schedule 44

3.18 Confirmation Menu Layout 45

3.19 Complete Room Booking 46

3.20 Administration Page 47

3.21 Reservation Management Page 48

3.22 User Management Page 49

3.23 Room Management Page 49

3.24 Subject Management Page 50

3.25 Instructor Management Page 51

3.26 Instructor filter code 52

3.27 Timetable Management Page 52

3.28 Technician Management Page 53

3.29 Account Page 54

4 Overall result 61

xiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CBIR Content-Based Image Retrieval

CBVIR Comtent-Based Visual Information Retrieval

MIIT Malaysian Institute of Technology

QBIR Query By Image Retrieval

RUP Rational Unified Model

SDLC System Development Life Cycle

UniKL University Kuala Lumpur

1

CHAPTER ON E : IN TRODUC TION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This chapter elaborates on the motivation of this study as well as the main elements

involved in this research. The sub topic describes the overall idea, the problem

statement, research question and objectives, scope of the study and the significant of

the research work. The last sub topic elaborates on the organization of this

dissertation.

INTRODUCTION 1.1

One of the most important challenges and perhaps the most difficult problem in

semantic understanding of media is visual concept detection in the presence of

complex backgrounds. In our daily lives, more application techniques are based on

biometrics detection such as fingerprints, iris pattern recognition and face detection

have been developed to secure access control of a system or database. A database is a

collection of information that is organized systematically to make data easily

accessed, managed, and updated. Database management system is very important. The

advantages of database management includes; 1) to save time, and thereby increase in

productivity and profits, since it is easier to retrieve data when required; and 2) with

database management it makes backing up of vital data much easier.

In the meantime, advancement in the web technology and standards has

brought a lot of changes in our daily routine lives i.e. the users of web applications.

Web application is an application that is accessed via web over a network such as the

internet or intranet. Web applications are popular due to its ability to update

information in real-time. Examples of web applications include webmail, online

2

auctions, wikis, discussion boards, and many more (Erl, 2005). In fact, most of the

web existing applications incorporated a certain degree of proper database

management.

In the context of a reservation system, it is important to have a good database

management system. By allowing the reservation database accessible over the internet

or intranet, an online reservation system to administrate and manage resources

efficiently at ease from any point or location can be made possible.

PROBLEM STATEMENTS 1.2

A real-time web-based classroom reservation system is a system that allows viewing,

booking and running an online reservation through the web for administrators and

users. In this work, the users are the lecturers of UniKL-MIIT. It is important to have

an on-line system in order to manage resources efficiently and easier access for

administrators and lecturers. The combination of different rooms with different sizes

and equipment, the possibility to choose between different dates and times are among

the reasons why a good reservation system is needed to make it easier to access and to

be use from different platforms.

The existing manual reservation system for the classroom, computer/workshop

labs, and Lecture Theatre at UniKL-MIIT are facing several problems mainly due to

no direct communication and interaction between lecturers and administrative staffs

who are responsible for booking the classrooms. Hence, the current system could not

cope-up with a double booking made by different lecturers. It is also hard for the

lecturers to locate or to determine the availability of rooms. On top of that, this

manual procedure can only be performed by lecturers during working hours only.

3

The administrator of the current system also faced some problems. The

problems occurred during reservation are the difficulties to trace and manage the

booking facilities including whether a borrower has returned borrowed facilities such

as the projector. At the same time, there is no way an administrator is able to locate if

any cancellation has been made. Poor database management system is the root

problem on managing the resources and may also lead to unnecessary blocking of

other users during reservation process.

As the output of this research, lecturers would prefer to have a database which

they can easily access and manage reservation of classes based on their preferences.

Therefore, by implementing this database, user can access the system and could obtain

the correct information through the database. Since this database project is a part of a

bigger research work on image processing, the study is going to incorporate and adopt

a subset of Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) into this work – to process colour

image. Colour is used because it has obvious characters and robust visual cue for

detection. The study also will capture colour images using a normal PC webcam

before processing it and display the information stored in the database system. Once

the proposed system is able to processed coloured images, the idea is to further

enhance the system so that it will be able to do the face detection to increase the

overall security in the database system.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Based on the problem statements elaborated in the previous section, the research

questions of this work would be:

4

How to design an online reservation system that can be easily accessed and

monitored by the lecturers and administrative staffs of UniKL-MITT

respectively?

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The main objectives are:

1. To design a real-time reservation system.

2. To implement a database system that can be used to view, add and modify

data or information effectively.

3. To incorporate a subset of CBIR in the proposed reservation system.

1.5 RESEARCH SCOPE

The following highlights the research scope of this work;

1. The study was conducted at the University Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian

Institute of Technology (UniKL-MIIT).

2. The targeted study groups for this system are the administrator, lecturers

and technicians. Students were not involved in this system. Administrator

monitored the system such as adding, modifying and deleting any

information, as well as approving or rejecting room booking applications.

Lecturers had the priority to make a reservation, cancellation and to make a

request on booking facilities. Administrators and lecturers had a quick

search tool which captured image and identified the colour to check the

status of rooms. Technicians were notified through email when equipment

is requested by lecturers.

5

3. PHP is used as the programming language to manipulate and to retrieve

data and MySQL is used as the database.

1.6 RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE

This study provides many benefits such as:

1. Improving productivity and customer satisfaction. Administrator tasks

become easier to check the availability of classrooms.

2. Saving time of searching for any available rooms.

3. Reducing mistakes and efforts. The online reservation system reduces error

especially in booking of classrooms since lecturers are able to view the

rooms‟ availability at real-time. Therefore, clashes of reservation can be

avoided. Lecturers would be booking the rooms effortlessly anywhere and

anytime.

4. It also reduces the efforts for the lecturers by making it easier to reserve

anywhere, and at any time.

5. Avoiding manual work and automatically generating reports to show status

of all rooms.

6. Creating a user-friendly colour detection database system that was able to

capture colour image and later processed it to retrieve data and displayed

the correct information from the database.

1.7 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE

This thesis is divided into six chapters. An overview of the following chapter is as

follows:

6

Chapter One – describes the study details according to its problems that need to be

solved. The objectives, scopes and its significance have been identified and described.

Chapter Two – discuss the related literature reviews and presenting the online

classroom reservation that are used in universities in Malaysia.

Chapter Three – describes and elaborates the research methodologies that have been

used in this work. Explains in details the design and prototype of proposed real-time

booking reservation system.

Chapter Four – discusses and analyses the qualitative experimentation results.

Chapter Five – discusses the conclusions, limitations and the future work to enhance

this work.

7

CHAPTER TWO: LITERA TURE R EVIEW

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter elaborates on the background of this work followed by review on related

works on online reservation system.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The internet communication is an open and distributed services allowing different

types of activities such as browsing, searching, making payment, and etc. In modern

times, internet offers an excellent inter connecting medium of data, information, and

file transfers (Lowe & Henderson-Sellers, 2003). The internet has evolved from a

relatively obscure, experimental research and academic network to a commodity,

mission-critical component of the public telecommunication infrastructure (Labovitz,

1999).

Nowadays, in the world of new technological innovation and global

competition, corporate decision-makers need reliable and up-to-date information.

Therefore, the only way of keeping up with the trend is by using online services

(Poynder, 1998).

2.2 REAL-TIME ONLINE RESERVATION SYSTEM

Online reservation or booking system is one of the online communication services that

client can access through their computer or handheld devices. This communication

services can be further optimized via network support such as web services. As

described by (Grier, Tang, & King, 2008), the use of online booking system carried

8

out the usefulness of employing technologies for describing query based synthesizer

classifications in terms of types, objects and contents.

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR), also known as query by image content

(QBIC) and content-based visual information retrieval (CBVIR) is an application of

computer vision technique that retrieves data from input image (Michael Lew, 2006).

In addition, CBIR is also the key technology for improving the interface between user

and computer. The main features used for image are colour, texture and shape.

According to (Swain & Ballard,1991) colour is the first and most straightforward

visual feature for indexing and retrieval of image. Swati and Vrushali (Swati &

Vrushali, 2011) described that in CBIR, each image that is stored in the database has

features extracted and compared to the features of the query image. It consists of two

steps which are feature extraction and matching. Features extraction is the first step of

extracting image to a distinguishable context. Matching involved matching of a result

that is visually similar.

Many real-time applications such as a reservation system would require storing

large amounts of data and processing these data accordingly. Reservation system has

been used for a wide range of applications by many types of organization, such as

squash, tennis and golf clubs, sailing clubs, village halls, TV/Music studios,

universities and schools as well as many types of commercial businesses.

Due to the large amount of data, efficient database management algorithms for

accessing and manipulating data are required to satisfy the timing constraints for a

specific application. According to (Ozgur Ulusoy, 1995), real-time database systems

involve a new research area investigating possible ways of applying database systems

technology to real-time systems. Management of real-time information through a

9

database system requires the integration of concepts from both real-time systems and

database systems.

2.3 SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT MODEL

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the overall process of developing

information systems through a multi-step process from investigation of initial

requirements through analysis, design, implementation and maintenance. There are

several SDLC models such as waterfall, spiral, Rational Unified Process (RUP) and

Agile methodologies, but each generally consists of a similar defined steps or phases.

2.3.1 Waterfall Model

Waterfall model is one of the most well-known models in software development

cycle. This model is also known as the traditional or classic model. Its name is

waterfall because it works like fall of water or flow of the water. (M.Cartor, 2010).

The waterfall model in software engineering was originally designed in 1970 by

Winston W.Royce (Royce, Winston, 1970). However, the model was not named as

„waterfall‟ model but as sequential model.

Figure 2.1 illustrated the approach which subsequently became universally

used and known as the Waterfall model:

10

Figure 2.1: Waterfall Model (Ian Sommerville, 2000)

The phases in the waterfall model are requirement analysis and project planning,

system design and specification, coding and verification, system integration and

testing It is simple to understand and easy to use. The phases must be completed

before the next phase starts.

In this model there is sequential progression from one phase to another. To

elaborate this further, after the first phase is completed, it is considered as a stepping

stone to the next phase. The phases in the waterfall software development model are

requirement analysis and project planning, system design and specification, coding

and verification, system integration and testing and deployment and maintenance

phase.

Requirementsdefinition

System andsoftware design

Implementationand unit testing

Integration andsystem testing

Operation andmaintenance