  Video Surveillance is a fast evolving field of research and development (R&D)
driven by the urgent need for public security and safety (due to the growing
threats of terrorism, vandalism, and anti-social behavior). Traditionally,
surveillance systems are comprised of two components - video cameras
distributed over the guarded area and human observer watching and analyzing the
incoming video. Explosive growth of installed cameras and limited human
operator's ability to process the delivered video content raise an urgent
demand for developing surveillance systems with human like cognitive
capabilities, that is - Cognitive surveillance systems. The growing interest in
this issue is testified by the tens of workshops, symposiums and conferences
held over the world each year. The IEEE International Conference on Advanced
Video and Signal-Based Surveillance (AVSS) is certainly one of them. However,
for unknown reasons, the term Cognitive Surveillance does never appear among
its topics. As to me, the explanation for this is simple - the complexity and
the indefinable nature of the term "Cognition". In this paper, I am trying to
resolve the problem providing a novel definition of cognition equally suitable
for biological as well as technological applications. I hope my humble efforts
will be helpful.
