FINGER SENSOR WITH DATA THROTTLING AND ASSOCIATED METHODS

A finger sensing device may include a finger sensing area to receive a user's finger moved in a sliding motion, a sensor controller cooperating with the finger sensing area for collecting image data therefrom, an image processor, and a communications path for sending image data from the sensor controller to the image processor. The sensing device may use at least one of the sensor controller and the image processor for (i) selecting a reference image data subset based upon reference image data, (ii) selecting a new image data subset, and (iii) comparing the new image data subset to the reference image data subset to develop a matching score, and, if the matching score is above a matching threshold, then not having new image data corresponding to the new image data subset sent over the data communications path, and, if the matching score is below the matching threshold, then having the new image data corresponding to the new image data subset sent over the data communications path. The finger sensing device may be operable at a dynamic scan rate.