the former translated sound vibrations into tracings on smoked glass to show their acoustic waveforms, while the latter allowed sound to be displayed as patterns of light. after world war ii, mathematician norbert wiener developed cybernetic theory, that proposed that systems are controlled by monitoring their results. the participants at the landmark 1969 conference at the surfrider inn in santa monica coined the term biofeedback from wiener's feedback. the conference resulted in the founding of the bio-feedback research society, which permitted normally isolated researchers to contact and collaborate with each other, as well as popularizing the term biofeedback. the work of b.f. skinner led researchers to apply operant conditioning to biofeedback, decide which responses could be voluntarily controlled and which could not. in the first experimental demonstration of biofeedback, shearn used these procedures with heart rate. the effects of the perception of autonomic nervous system activity was initially explored by george mandler's group in 1958. in 1965, maia lisina combined classical and operant conditioning to train subjects to change blood vessel diameter, eliciting and displaying reflexive blood flow changes to teach subjects how to voluntarily control the temperature of their skin. in 1974, h.d. kimmel trained subjects to sweat using the galvanic skin response. timeline 1958 – g. mandler's group studied the process of autonomic feedback and its effects. 1962 – d. shearn used feedback instead of conditioned stimuli to change heart rate. 1962 – publication of muscles alive by john basmajian and carlo de luca 1968 – annual veteran's administration research meeting in denver that brought together several biofeedback researchers 1969 – april: conference on altered states of consciousness, council grove, ks; october: formation and first meeting of the biofeedback research society (brs), surfrider inn, santa monica, ca; co-founder barbara b. brown becomes the society's first president 1972 – review and analysis of early biofeedback studies by d. shearn in the 'handbook of psychophysiology'. 1974 – publication of the alpha syllabus: a handbook of human eeg alpha activity and the first popular book on biofeedback, new mind, new body (december), both by barbara b. brown 1975 – american association of biofeedback clinicians founded; publication of the biofeedback syllabus: a handbook for the psychophysiologic study of biofeedback by barbara b. brown 1976 – brs renamed the biofeedback society of america (bsa) 1977 – publication of beyond biofeedback by elmer and alyce green and biofeedback: methods and procedures in clinical practice by george fuller and stress and the art of biofeedback by barbara b. brown 1978 – publication of biofeedback: a survey of the literature by francine butler 1979 – publication of biofeedback: principles and practice for clinicians by john basmajian and mind/body integration: essential readings in biofeedback by erik peper, sonia ancoli, and michele quinn 1980 – first national certification examination in biofeedback offered by the biofeedback certification institute of america (bcia); publication of biofeedback: clinical applications in behavioral medicine by david olton and aaron noonberg and supermind: the ultimate energy by barbara b. brown 1984 – publication of principles and practice of stress management by woolfolk and lehrer and between health and illness: new notions on stress and the nature of well being by barbara b. brown 1984 - publication of the biofeedback way to starve stress, by mark golin in prevention magazine 1984 1987 – publication of biofeedback: a practitioner's guide by mark schwartz 1989 – bsa renamed the association for applied psychophysiology and biofeedback 1991 – first national certification examination in stress management offered by bcia 1994 – brain wave and emg sections established within aapb 1995 – society for the study of neuronal regulation (ssnr) founded 1996 – biofeedback foundation of europe (bfe) established 1999 – ssnr renamed the society for neuronal regulation (snr) 2002 – snr renamed the international society for neuronal regulation (isnr) 2003 – publication of the neurofeedback book by thompson and thompson 2004 – publication of evidence-based practice in biofeedback and neurofeedback by carolyn yucha and christopher gilbert 2006 – isnr renamed the international society for neurofeedback and research (isnr) 2008 – biofeedback neurofeedback alliance formed to pool the resources of the aapb, bcia, and isnr on joint initiatives 2008 – biofeedback alliance and nomenclature task force define biofeedback 2009 – the international society for neurofeedback & research defines neurofeedback 2010 – biofeedback certification institute of america renamed the biofeedback certification international alliance (bcia) in popular culture biofeedback data and biofeedback technology are used by massimiliano peretti in a contemporary art environment, the amigdalae project. this project explores the way in which emotional reactions filter and distort human perception and observation. during the performance, biofeedback medical technology, such as the eeg, body temperature variations, heart rate, and galvanic responses, are used to analyze an audience's emotions while they watch the video art. using these signals, the music changes so that the consequent sound environment simultaneously mirrors and influences the viewer's emotional state. more information is available at the website of the cnrs french national center of neural research. charles wehrenberg implemented competitive-relaxation as a gaming paradigm with the will ball games circa 1973. in the first bio-mechanical versions, comparative gsr inputs monitored each player's relaxation response and moved the will ball across a playing field appropriately using stepper motors.willball gaming table 1973 in 1984, wehrenberg programmed the will ball games for apple ii computers. the will ball game itself is described as pure competitive-relaxation; brain ball is a duel between one player's left- and right-brain hemispheres; mood ball is an obstacle-based game; psycho dice is a psycho-kinetic game. in 1999, the heartmath institute developed an educational system based on heart rhythm measurement and display on a personal computer (windows/macintosh). their systems have been copied by many but are still unique in the way they assist people to learn about and self-manage their physiology. a handheld version of their system was released in 2006 and is completely portable, being the size of a small mobile phone and having rechargeable batteries. with this unit, one can move around and go about daily business while gaining feedback about inner psycho-physiological states. in 2001, the company journey to wild divine began producing biofeedback hardware and software for the mac and windows operating systems. third-party and open-source software and games are also available for the wild divine hardware. tetris 64 makes use of biofeedback to adjust the speed of the tetris puzzle game. david rosenboom has worked to develop musical instruments that would respond to mental and physiological commands. playing these instruments can be learned through a process of biofeedback. in the mid-1970s, an episode of the television series the bionic woman featured a doctor who could "heal" himself using biofeedback techniques to communicate to his body and react to stimuli. for example, he could exhibit "super" powers, such as walking on hot coals, by feeling the heat on the sole of his feet and then convincing his body to react by sending large quantities of perspiration to compensate. he could also convince his body to deliver extremely high levels of adrenalin to provide more energy to allow him to run faster and jump higher. when injured, he could slow his heart rate to reduce blood pressure, send extra platelets to aid in clotting a wound, and direct white blood cells to an area to attack infection. in the science-fiction book quantum lens by douglas e. richards, bio-feedback is used to enhance certain abilities to detect quantum effects that give the user special powers.