In 2011, France went even further, forbidding concealment of people’s face in public—through a burqa, niqab (a version of the veil that leaves a slot for a woman’s eyes), but also masks or balaclavas
President Sarkozy wants 2011 to be the year that "vidéoprotection" goes mainstream, and has set a target of 60,000 cameras watching public spaces around the country by the end of this year, up from the current 20,000.
Oh ok. Yea that's a good point. Though i stated in another reply that images of unconstrained users from NIR sensors is still an active and less successful form of face recognition. It's actually part of what i work on!
So i guess i'm confused what you're getting at here.