This document proposes a device to detect addiction and avoid addiction using embedded systems. It works by using EEG sensors to detect high beta brainwaves associated with stress or addiction. If high beta waves are detected, the device produces binaural beats within the alpha or theta range using two oscillators played through headphones. This is intended to entrain the brainwaves to a lower, more relaxed frequency using the brain's natural "frequency following response" to binaural beats, thus helping avoid addiction. The device is intended to be lightweight and portable for personal use in treating psychological addictions.

1. DETECTION OF ADDICTION OF AN INDIVIDUAL AND
AVOIDING ADDICTION USING EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Dhivya.R, Mathivani.M,
Department of EEE, Department of EEE,
Kongu Engineering College, Kongu Engineering College,
Perundurai. Perundurai.
divyarcvd@gmail.com mathivanimarimuthu@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Addiction is a chronic disease
causing disorder in the brain memory
and related circuits leading to
characteristic biological, psychological,
social and spiritual manifestations. This
is reflected in an individual
pathologically pursuing relief by
unrecommended substance use and other
behaviors. In the world, about 47% of
people are found to spend their waking
hours in thinking of matters apart from
their normal mind-set and about 80% of
the people are addicted to one more
addictive substances. In this paper we
are going to explain how addiction could
be avoided using an embedded device by
using the phenomenon of “frequency
following response” of the brain by
controlling brain waves.
1.INTRODUCTION:
Before going on to details we
are supposed to know the basic
terms.The basic terms that this paper is
based upon are ‘The Brain’,
‘Brainwaves’ and ‘Addiction’.
1.1.THE BRAIN:
Brain, an electrochemical organ
which functions as a coordinating centre
of sensation, nervous activity and
intelligence. At the root of all our
thoughts, emotions and behaviours is the
communication between neurons within
our brains. Brainwaves are produced by
synchronised electrical pulses from
masses of neurons communicating with
each other. The Brainwaves are
produced by the lobes of the brain and
they are,
 Frontal lobe
 Parietal lobe
 Temporal lobe
 Occipital lobe
 Limbic lobe
 Insular cortex
Thus, temporal lobe processes
auditory information from the ears and
relates it to Wernicke's area of the
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2. parietal lobe and the motor cortex of the
frontal lobe. The amygdale is located
within the temporal lobe and controls
social and sexual behavior and other
emotions. The limbic system is
important in emotional behavior and
controlling movements(Refer Fig 1.1).
Fig 1.1
Researchers have speculated that
a fully functional brain generates as
much as 10 watts of electrical
power.Other conservative investigators
calculated that the brain generates 50
milli volts. Although, the generated
power is limited in very specific ways it
occurs as a charateristics of the human
brain.
1.2.BRAINWAVES:
Electrical activity emanating from
the brain is displayed in the form of
brainwaves. It is important to know that
all humans display five different types of
electrical patterns or “brain waves”
across the cortex. Our brainwaves
change according to what we’re doing
and feeling. When slower brainwaves
are dominant we can feel tired, slow,
sluggish, or dreamy. The higher
frequencies are dominant when we feel
wired, or hyper-alert. Brainwave speed
is measured in Hertz (cycles per second)
and they are dived into bands deliniating
slow, moderate, and fast waves.
There are four categories of these
brainwaves, ranging from most activity
to least activity. These are (Refer Fig1.2)
 Delta waves
 Theta waves
 Alpha waves
 Beta waves.
 Gamma waves
Delta waves are waves with high
amplitude. It has a frequency of 0.5 – 4
Hertz. They never go down to zero
because that would mean that you were
brain dead. But, deep dreamless sleep
would take you down to the lowest
frequency.
Typically, 2 to 3 Hertz. Theta waves
are waves with amplitude lesser than that
of delta waves and have a greater
frequency of 5 – 8 Hertz. A person who
has taken time off from a task and begins
to daydream is often in a theta
brainwave state.
Alpha waves are waves with
amplitude lesser than that of theta waves
and have a greater frequency of 9-14
Hertz. A person who takes time out to
reflect or meditate is usually in a alpha
state.
Beta waves are the waves that have
the lowest amplitude and have the
highest frequency of 15 – 40 Hertz.
These waves are again classified into
low beta waves and high beta waves
according to their range of frequencies.
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3.  The low beta waves have a
frequency of 15 – 32 Hertz. A
person making an active
conversation would be in the low
beta state.
 The high beta waves have a
frequency of 33 – 40 Hertz. A
person in a stress, pain or
addiction would be in the high
beta state.
Gamma waves are involved in higher
processing tasks as well as cognitive
functioning. They are important for
learning, memory and information
processing. It is thought that the 40 Hz
gamma wave is important for the
binding of our senses in regards to
perception and are involved in learning
new material. It has been found that
individuals who are mentally challenged
and have learning disabilities tend to
have lower gamma activity than average
S.No. Brainwaves
Frequency range
(Hertz)
1) Delta 0.5 – 4
2) Theta 5 - 8
3) Alpha 9 – 14
4) Low Beta 15 – 32
5) High Beta 32 – 40
6) Gamma 40-100
Fig 1.2
1.2.1.ADDICTION:
There are two types of addiction:
 Physical dependency
 Psychological dependency.
Physical dependence can happen
with the chronic use of many drugs—
including many prescription drugs even
if taken as instructed. Thus, physical
dependence in and of itself does not
constitute addiction, but it often
accompanies addiction.
In this paper, we are going to solely
consider the psychological addictions in
designing the addiction avoider device.
1.2.2.PSYCHOLOGICAL
DEPENDENCY:
A person becomes dependent on
something to help alleviate specific
emotions. Psychological dependence
begins after the first trial which a person
then becomes satisfied and the
satisfaction increases with each use. This
constant feeling leads to psychological
reinforcement which eventually leads to
dependence. Along with substances,
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4. people can also become dependent on
activities as well; such as shopping,
pornography, self-harm, and many more.
While a psychologically dependent
person attempts to recover, there are
many withdrawal symptoms that one can
experience throughout the process. Some
of the withdrawal symptoms are:
headache, poor judgement, trembling
hands, and loss of attention span and
focusing.
2.THE ADDICTION AVOIDER:
2.1.PRINCIPLE:
‘Binaural Beats’ is the Principle
behind this device. Binaural Beats or
"binaural tones" are an auditory effect
that is created in the brain when two
tones of slightly different frequencies are
played separately into each ear. This
effect was discovered in 1839 by
Heinrich Wilhelm Dove. Normally,
when a sound reaches our ears, your
brain uses this information to help
decipher where the sound is coming
from. If we hear a noise that originates
slightly to our left, then the sound will
not only be a little louder in our left ear,
it also arrives at our left ear a few
milliseconds sooner than it arrives at our
right ear. We may not notice this effect
on a conscious level, but our brain
certainly does. So our brain is very
sensitive to small variations in the
frequency of sounds, and to the way
those sounds reach our ears. When we
listen to binaural beats, our brain is
subjected to an effect that is perceived as
a constant fluctuation in the
directionality of the sound. This is really
just an auditory illusion. The rate of this
fluctuation can be controlled by the use
of specific sound frequencies. For
example, by playing a tone of 200 Hz in
the left ear and 210 Hz in the right ear, a
fluctuation of 10 Hz is detected by the
brain. The difference between the two
frequencies could be called a "sub
harmonic" – a sound that is below the
threshold of human hearing. However,
this sub-harmonic binaural frequency
may still be detected as a slight pulsing
sound. This pulsing, or beating, is why
we call them binaural "beats". Binaural
beats cause the brain to adjust its
dominant frequency to match the sub
harmonic frequency of the beating
sound. This is what is known as the
"frequency following response". We
can take advantage of the frequency
following response by creating binaural
frequencies that help to induce specific
brainwave frequencies. For example, we
know that someone who is in a state of
deep meditation may have a dominant
brainwave frequency of say, 6 Hertz (6
cycles per second). When we listen to
binaural tones that have been
programmed to produce a 6 Hertz sub
harmonic frequency, our own
brainwaves will follow the frequency of
the beat and will naturally adjust in
sympathy.
Directly using an infrasonic
auditory stimulus is impossible, since the
ears cannot hear sounds low enough to
be useful for brain stimulation. Human
hearing is limited to the range of
frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz,
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5. while the frequencies of human brain
waves are below about 40 Hz. To
account for this, binaural beat
frequencies must be used.
According to this view, when the
perceived beat frequency corresponds to
the delta, theta, alpha or beta range of
brainwave frequencies, the brainwaves
entrain to or move towards the beat
frequency. For example, if a 315 Hz sine
wave is played into the right ear and a
325 Hz one into the left ear, the brain is
supposed to be entrained towards the
beat frequency (10 Hz, in the alpha
range). Since alpha range is usually
associated with relaxation, this is
supposed to have a relaxing effect. Some
people find pure sine waves unpleasant,
so a pink noise or another background
(e.g. natural sounds such as river noises)
can also be mixed with them.
2.2. BLOCK DIAGRAM:
Fig 1.3
2.3.EXPLANATION OF THE
WORKING:
The block diagram(Refer Fig
1.3) consists of the following parts
whose operation is as below:
2.3.1.SENSORS:
The sensors used are EEG
sensors:
An electroencephalogram detects
abnormalities in the brain waves or
electrical activity of the brain. During
the procedure, electrodes consisting of
small metal discs with thin wires are
pasted on the scalp. The electrodes
detect tiny electrical charges that result
from the activity of the brain cells. The
charges are amplified as analog signals.
The sensor sends the analog
brainwave signal into the 8515
microcontroller.
2.3.2.MICROCONTROLLER:
Fig 1.4
The Atmel 8515(Refer Fig 1.4)
microcontroller is a 40 pin, 4 MHz 8bit
microcontroller and has 8K FLASH, 512
EEPROM, 512 SRAM.The AT90S8515
is a low-power CMOS 8-bit
microcontroller. It has an internal analog
to digital converter (ADC) and internal
battery.
The signal that is sent by the
sensors is converted from analog to
digital signal. The microcontroller has a
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6. pre-defined program, which analyses the
digital signal and compares it with the
digital signal equivalent of the analog
signal having the frequency range of 32
– 40 Hz which is already stored in the
memory of the microcontroller. If on
comparison the analyses on two signals
are nearly same then the microcontroller
acknowledges and triggers the oscillator
1 and oscillator 2.
2.3.3.OSCILLATORS:
The oscillator is designed in such
a way that it produces a particular audio
wave below 1500 Hz. The oscillator will
be designed such that it has 10 – 13 Hz
difference in frequency with oscillator 1.
This difference in frequency creates
Binaural Beats. Thus if the brain of an
individual produces 32 – 40 Hz (High
Beta waves) i.e. if he/she is in stress or
addicted to some substance, the binaural
beats having a frequency of about 10-13
Hz creates a stimulus making the brain
to move towards the stimulated
frequency.
2.3.4.STEREO HEADPHONE:
The sensation of auditory
binaural beats occurs when two coherent
sounds of nearly similar frequencies are
presented one to each ear with stereo
headphones or speakers. This is done by
sending audio waves from one oscillator
to one of the two sides of the headphone
and another oscillator to another side of
the headphone.
3.FUTURE PROSPECTS:
Addiction avoider can be used to
cure stress or tension on any individual.
The concept of binaural waves can be
further researched and used to find a
device for communication with deaf and
dumb individuals. It can be further used
to study the resonance of brain during
brain diseases.
4.MERITS:
a)The headband used is made of
rubber is easy to use.
b)The whole device is light weight
and can be carried anywhere we want.
c)Helps in Relaxation of mind
d)Concentration and Focus level can
be increased
5.DEMERITS:
1) Those meeting any of the
following
criteria/conditions should not use
binaural beats
 Brain disorders
 Pregnant women
 People with heart disorders
 Photosensitive people
6.CONCLUSION:
Addiction Avoider is the safest
and simplest device to use in prevention
of Addiction. It is used for any type of
addiction like addiction caused by taking
narcotic drugs or alcohol and simple
addictions like overeating, sexual
intercourse and mannerisms.
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7. 7.REFERENCE:
[1]Wilson.R.Palacios, “Cocktails and
dreams: Perspectives on drugs and
alcohol use”
[2]Psychological Abstracts, American
Psychological Associations.
[3]”Cognition and Addiction”, Marcus
Munafo, I.Albery.
[4]”Addiction Conspiracy: Unlocking
Brain Chemistry and addiction”, Lee
Tannenbaum, 2008.
[5]“Drugs and the Future: Brain Science
and Addiction”, David.J.Nutt, Trevor.
Robbins, 2006.
[6]“Mapping the mind”, Rita Carter,
Christopher.D.Frith, 1998.
[7]“The truth about addiction and
recovery “, Stanton Peele, Archie
Brodsky, Mary Arnold.
[8]‘Detection of seizures in epileptic and
non-epileptic patients using GPS and
Embedded Systems’ by Abhiram
Chakraborty – Ukranian Journal of
Telemedicine and medical Telematics
(TOM 3 No.2 Pg. 211)
[9] www.bio-medical.com
[10]www.ercim.org/publication/
Ercim_News/enw51/bielikova.html
[11]www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
ency/article/003931.htm
[12]www.angelfire.com/empire/serpentis
666/Brainwaves.htm
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