Electronic device performing finger biometric pre-matching and related methods

1. An electronic device comprising:

a finger biometric sensor to sense a user's finger adjacent thereto;

a memory for storing finger matching biometric data and a subset of finger matching biometric data; and

a processor coupled to said finger biometric sensor to

acquire finger matching biometric data from said finger biometric sensor,

perform a finger pre-matching between a subset of the acquired finger matching biometric data and the subset of stored finger matching biometric data and based upon context data to generate pre-match data, the context data comprising at least one of a last match index and a last device orientation sensed from an orientation sensor to sense an orientation of the electronic device relative to a surface of Earth, and

perform a finger matching between the acquired finger biometric data and the stored finger matching biometric data based upon the pre-match data.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the context data comprises a current device orientation.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the context data comprises at least one application being executed by said processor.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the subset of stored finger biometric data comprises a plurality of pre-matching template metrics.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising a housing and a user input device carried by said housing; and wherein said input device carries said finger biometric sensor.

6. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein said input device comprises a finger-operated input device; and wherein said processor performs the finger matching also based upon operation of said finger-operated user input device.

7. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein said processor is to acquire spoof detection data from said biometric sensor and perform a spoof detecting operation of the acquired spoof detection data.

8. The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising a wireless transceiver coupled to said processor.

9. An electronic device comprising:

a housing;

a finger biometric sensor carried by said housing and to sense a user's finger adjacent thereto;

a memory for storing finger matching biometric data and a subset of finger matching biometric data;

a wireless transceiver carried by said housing;

a finger-operated user input device carried by said housing;

an orientation sensor to sense a device orientation relative to a surface of Earth; and

a processor coupled to said wireless transceiver to perform at least wireless communications function and to said finger biometric sensor to, based upon operation of said finger-operated user input device

acquire finger matching biometric data from said finger biometric sensor,

perform a finger pre-matching between a subset of the acquired finger matching biometric data and the subset of stored finger matching biometric data and based upon context data to generate pre-match data, the context data comprising a last match index and a last device orientation sensed from the orientation sensor, and

perform a finger matching between the acquired finger biometric data and the stored finger matching biometric data based upon the pre-match data.

10. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the context data comprises a current device orientation.

11. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the context data comprises at least one application being executed by said processor.

12. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the subset of stored finger biometric data comprises a plurality of pre-matching template metrics.

13. A method of matching finger biometric data in electronic device comprising a finger biometric sensor to sense a user's finger adjacent thereto, a memory for storing the finger matching biometric data and a subset of finger matching biometric data, and a processor coupled to the finger biometric sensor, the method comprising:

acquiring finger matching biometric data from the finger biometric sensor;

performing a finger pre-matching between a subset of the acquired finger matching biometric data and the subset of stored finger matching biometric data and based upon context data to generate pre-match data, the context data comprising at least one of a last match index and a last device orientation sensed from an orientation sensor to sense an orientation of the electronic device relative to a surface of Earth; and

performing a finger matching between the acquired finger biometric data and the stored finger matching biometric data based upon the pre-match data.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the context data comprises a current device orientation.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the context data comprises at least one application being executed by said processor.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the subset of stored finger biometric data comprises a plurality of pre-matching template metrics.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the finger matching is performed also based upon operation of a finger-operated user input device carrying the finger biometric sensor.