WO2015027944A1

WO2015027944A1 - Devices and methods for displaying cards on a terminal equipped with a touch screen

Info

Publication number: WO2015027944A1
Application number: PCT/CN2014/085544
Authority: WO
Inventors: Liang SHANG; Xin Wang; Yiju MOU; Zhuo GONG; Zhiyong ZHUO; Jun Li
Original assignee: Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited
Priority date: 2013-08-30
Filing date: 2014-08-29
Publication date: 2015-03-05
Also published as: CN104423865A; CN104423865B

Abstract

Methods for displaying cards on a terminal equipped with a touch screen and devices for performing such methods are disclosed. The method includes steps of providing a card game on a terminal for a user; displaying, by the terminal, a plurality of cards the user holds in the card game on the screen of the terminal with a first spacing; detecting, by the terminal, a spacing change trigger signal which acts on a location of the screen; determining, by the terminal, a target area on the screen according to the location, wherein at least one card of the plurality of cards being displayed; displaying, by the terminal, the at least one card in the target area with a second spacing greater than the first spacing.

Description

DEVICES AND METHODS FOR DISPLAYING CARDS ON A TERMINAL EQUIPPED

WITH A TOUCH SCREEN

PRIORITY STATEMENT

[0001] This application claims the priority benefit of Chinese Patent Application No.

2013103895127 field on August 30, 2013, the content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates to the field of computer technologies. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to devices and methods for displaying cards on a terminal equipped with a touch screen.

BACKGROUND

[0003] With rapid development of computer technologies, terminals such as smart mobile phone, tablet PC, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and laptop portable PC continue to emerge and have gradually penetrated into various areas of people's life such as study, work and living. People can use terminals to socialize, download files, shop online, and entertain themselves. As a mainstay of terminal games, card games are very popular among the players.

[0004] Although touch screens for all kinds of terminals are becoming bigger and bigger nowadays, the terminal screen still cannot fully display card information of a player who is playing a card game on the terminal when there are a large number of cards. Consequently, it is hard for the player to accurately select the target cards if there is a smaller spacing between cards. To address this problem, some poker applications dynamically calculate the average spacing between cards, namely, the maximum spacing between cards allowed by the terminal screen size is re-calculated after the player plays cards each time, and then the remaining cards of the player are redisplayed using the average spacing between cards. Fig. 1 shows an application scenario where the conventional art of the present disclosure is used to dynamically calculate the average spacing between cards and then redisplay cards. Fig. 1 (a) shows the demonstration effect when 39 cards are displayed; Fig. 1 (b) shows the demonstration effect when 25 cards are displayed; Fig. 1 (c) shows the demonstration effect when 15 cards are displayed; Fig. 1 (d) shows the demonstration effect when 12 cards are displayed.

[0005] As can be seen from Fig. 1, when there are too many cards, the spacing between cards displayed on the terminal screen is too small that the player cannot identify the card information. Further, when the player selects target cards by touching the terminal screen, it becomes easy to make a wrong card selection or inaccurately locate the cards. Consequently, it takes longer time for the player to select target cards, more energy is consumed, and the cruising time of the terminal is shortened.

SUMMARY

[0006] Example embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and devices for displaying cards in a card game. When a touch screen of the device is not large enough so that the cards displayed thereon have too much overlap, the method expands only a portion of the cards to a user of the device so that the user may comfortably select a card from the expanded cards. Further, the method may also group and display the cards upon their categories. The method may display unexpanded cards within a category with an even narrower spacing and display adjacent categories with a larger spacing, so that even if the cards displayed on the screen are too crowded, the user may still distinguish different categories of cards, making playing the card game on the device more enjoyable.

[0007] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a device with a touch screen may comprise a processor-readable storage medium including a set of instructions displaying cards on the touch screen; and a processor in communication with the storage medium. The processor is configured to provide a card game on the device for a user and execute the set of instructions to display a plurality of cards the user holds in the card game on a screen of the terminal with a first spacing; detect a spacing change trigger signal that acts on a location of the screen; determine a target area in on the screen according to the location, wherein the target area has at least one card from the plurality of cards being displayed thereon; and display the at least one card in the target area with a second spacing greater than the first spacing.

[0008] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for displaying cards on a terminal with a touch screen may comprises: providing a card game on a terminal for a user;

displaying a plurality of cards the user holds in the card game on a screen of the terminal with a first spacing; detecting a spacing change trigger signal that acts on a location of the screen; determining a target area in on the screen according to the location, wherein the target area has at least one card from the plurality of cards being displayed thereon; and displaying the at least one card in the target area with a second spacing greater than the first spacing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Fig. 1 shows an application scenario to dynamically calculate the average spacing between cards and then redisplay cards;

[0010] Fig. 2 shows a flowchart of a method in a first example embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0011] Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of a method in a second example embodiment of the present disclosure; [0012] Fig. 4 shows an application scenario to display cards on a terminal before receiving a spacing change trigger signal, according to the method in the second example embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0013] Fig. 5 shows an application scenario to display cards on the terminal after receiving the spacing change trigger signal, according to the method in the second example embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0014] Fig. 6 shows the structure of a device for displaying cards according to a third example embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0015] Fig. 7 shows the structure of a device for displaying cards according to a the fourth example embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0016] Fig. 8 shows the structure of a terminal with a touch screen that can be used to implement the methods of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] Subject matter will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the

accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific example embodiments. Subject matter may, however, be embodied in a variety of different forms and, therefore, covered or claimed subject matter is intended to be construed as not being limited to any example embodiments set forth herein; example embodiments are provided merely to be illustrative. Likewise, a reasonably broad scope for claimed or covered subject matter is intended. Among other things, for example, subject matter may be embodied as methods, devices, components, or systems. The following detailed description is, therefore, not intended to be limiting on the scope of what is claimed.

[0018] Throughout the specification and claims, terms may have nuanced meanings suggested or implied in context beyond an explicitly stated meaning. Likewise, the phrase "in one embodiment" as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and the phrase "in another embodiment" as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment. It is intended, for example, that claimed subject matter includes combinations of example embodiments in whole or in part.

[0019] In general, terminology may be understood at least in part from usage in context. For example, terms, such as "and", "or", or "and/or," as used herein may include a variety of meanings that may depend at least in part upon the context in which such terms are used. Typically, "or" if used to associate a list, such as A, B or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C, here used in the inclusive sense, as well as A, B or C, here used in the exclusive sense. In addition, the term "one or more" as used herein, depending at least in part upon context, may be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in a singular sense or may be used to describe combinations of features, structures or characteristics in a plural sense. Similarly, terms, such as "a," "an," or "the," again, may be understood to convey a singular usage or to convey a plural usage, depending at least in part upon context. In addition, the term "based on" may be understood as not necessarily intended to convey an exclusive set of factors and may, instead, allow for existence of additional factors not necessarily expressly described, again, depending at least in part on context.

[0020] FIG.8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a terminal that may be implemented in the present disclosure. The terminal may include apparatuses to execute methods and software systems introduced in the present disclosure. A terminal 800 may be a computing device capable of executing a software system. The terminal 800 may, for example, be a device such as a personal desktop computer or a portable device, such as a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, or a smart phone.

[0021] The terminal 800 may vary in terms of capabilities or features. Claimed subject matter is intended to cover a wide range of potential variations. For example, the terminal 800 may include a keypad/keyboard 856. It may also include a display 854, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), or a display with a high degree of functionality, such as a touch- sensitive color 2D or 3D display. In contrast, however, as another example, a web-enabled terminal 800 may include one or more physical or virtual keyboards, and mass storage medium 830.

[0022] The terminal 800 may also include or may execute a variety of operating systems 841, including an operating system, such as a Windows™ or Linux™, or a mobile operating system, such as iOS™, Android™, or Windows Mobile™. The terminal 800 may include or may execute a variety of possible applications 842, such as an electronic game 845. An application 842 may enable communication with other devices via a network, such as communicating with another computer or content server via a network for online game.

[0023] Further, the terminal 800 may include one or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media 830 and one or more processors 822 in communication with the non-transitory processor- readable storage media 830. For example, the non-transitory processor-readable storage media 830 may be a RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of non-transitory storage medium known in the art. The one or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media 830 may store sets of instructions, or units and/or modules that include the sets of instructions, for conducting operations and/or method steps described in the present disclosure. Alternatively, the units and/or modules may be hardware disposed in the terminal 800 configured to conduct operations and/or method steps described in the present disclosure. The one or more processors may be configured to execute the sets of instructions and perform the operations in example embodiments of the present disclosure. [0024] Merely for illustration, only one processor will be described in terminals that execute operations and/or method steps in the following example embodiments. However, it should be note that the terminals in the present disclosure may also include multiple processors, thus operations and/or method steps that are performed by one processor as described in the present disclosure may also be jointly or separately performed by the multiple processors. For example, if in the present disclosure a processor of a terminal executes both step A and step B, it should be understood that step A and step B may also be performed by two different processors jointly or separately in the terminal (e.g., the first processor executes step A and the second processor executes step B, or the first and second processors jointly execute steps A and B).

[0025] Fig. 2 shows a flowchart of a method in a first example embodiment of the present disclosure. The method may be implemented in and executed by the terminal 800 with a touch screen to display cards when a user of the terminal 800 plays a card game. The method may also be implemented in other electronic games or applications where there the user needs to pick up from a plurality of items shown on a touch screen of a terminal. For example, when there are too many browsing windows open on a browser so that the tabs for each window overlap with each other, or when there are too many applications running on the terminal so that on the terminal's desktop the corresponding icons folded together, the method in may be implemented when the user wants to pick up one of the browsing windows or one of the application icons.

[0026] The terminal 800 may include, but is not limited to, smart mobile phone, tablet PC, PDA, and laptop portable PC. The method may include the following steps.

[0027] Step S201 : displaying all the cards held by a user with a first spacing on a preset display area of a screen of a terminal that the user is using to play a card game.

[0028] In this step, the terminal first obtains all the cards that the current user should hold in the card game, and displays all the obtained cards of the current user in equal spacing on the preset display area of the touch screen of the terminal. The equal spacing is then treated as the first spacing for later spacing adjustments. The display mode includes, but is not limited to, displaying according to the card rank sequence in the game rule, displaying of cards classified and arranged according to the preset classification principle, and displaying of the current user's all cards at random.

[0029] Wherein all the cards of the current user can be saved in a server remotely managing the card game or in a local card game management module in the terminal. In the case of stand-alone card games, the terminal directly obtains all the cards of the current user from the local card game management module; in the case of webpage card games or online card games, the terminal obtains all the cards of the current user from the server managing the card games. The preset display area can be a rectangular area on the terminal screen. The equal spacing is obtained according to the length of the preset display area and the quantity of all the cards of the current user. For example, the equal spacing is the quotient of the length of the preset display area divided by the quantity of all the cards the current user holds in the card game.

[0030] Step S202: detecting a spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area.

[0031] In this step, the terminal provides real-time detection of the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area. The spacing change trigger signal may be a touching signal on a specific position on the terminal screen. Further, the terminal may determine that the touching signal is the spacing change trigger signal if the user touch and hold a specific position for a predetermined period of time. For example, the spacing change trigger signal may be a touch conducted by the current user over the cards lined on the touch screen of the terminal. The spacing change trigger signal may also be a sliding action from the user's finger over the cards. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the spacing change trigger signal can be any other types of user actuated trigger signals that achieve the effect discussed in Step S203.

[0032] For the terminal equipped with a touch screen or a touch pad, triggering the aforesaid preset display area includes, but is not limited to, direct touching the preset display area on the screen or touching the preset display area using a touch pen. When the terminal uses a resistive touch screen, usually the aforesaid preset display area can be triggered by using a touch pen; when the terminal uses a capacitive touch screen, the user can directly touch to trigger the preset display area on the screen. Nevertheless, those skilled in the art can understand that the aforesaid two trigger modes can be combined to trigger the preset display area on the screen of the same terminal.

[0033] Step S203 : when the spacing change trigger signal is detected, determining a target area in the current preset display area for spacing change according to the spacing change trigger signal.

[0034] In this step, when the spacing change trigger signal is detected, the terminal determines the target area in the current preset display area for spacing change according to the detected spacing change trigger signal. For example, when the card game running on the terminal is in a display mode to display all the cards the user currently holds in the card game after they are classified and arranged according to the preset classification principle, the terminal will obtain the start position and end position of each category of cards on the preset display area, judge and/or determine which category of cards is taking the area that includes the touched position of the terminal contained in the spacing change trigger signal according to the start and end position, and finally use the area of that category of cards where the touched position is located as the target area in the current preset display area. Of course, those of ordinary skills in the art should understand that, the method may adopt other definitions of preset areas when other display modes are adopted, so that the target area that terminal picks up may be the preset area in which the touched position locates.

[0035] Step S204: redisplaying all the cards in the target area with a second spacing greater than the first spacing. ΘΘ36] After determining the target area in the preset display area, the terminal redisplays all the cards in the target area with a second spacing greater than the equal spacing. The spacing between the cards in the target area may be simply expanded evenly with the second spacing, so that the cards still keep an alignment with the rest of the cards without being amplified, or the distance of the cards in the target area may be expanded and meanwhile the size of the cards are also amplified so that the user may have a better view to the cards. The cards in the target area may also be expanded in a way so that the cards in the target area pop up from the cards in the rest of areas on the screen, or being expanded in a radial way so that the top of each card is pointing outward. The spacing between the cards may be expanded to a predetermined spacing, so that it is sufficient for the user to select a card using a finger. The spacing may be even among the cards, or alternative, the spacing may be uneven, so that the spacing at the location where the spacing change trigger signal is detected has the largest spacing.

[0037] In this example embodiment, because displaying the cards in the target area in a larger spacing takes extra spaces, the terminal can further compress the spacing between the cards locates in areas other than the target area so that the total length of the cards take on the screen keeps the same. The terminal can also display the target cards in the preset displayed area after enlarging the spacing between the target cards and overlapping the other cards, without changing the mutual distances of the other cards within other preset display areas.

[0038] In this example embodiment, when the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area is detected, all the cards in the target area are redisplayed using the second spacing greater than the first spacing according to the spacing change trigger signal, so that the terminal can clearly display the information of target cards and increase the touchable area of a single card, thereby shortening the user' s time used to select the target cards and prolonging the cruising time of the terminal.

[0039] Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of a method in a second example embodiment of the present disclosure. The method may be implemented in and executed by the terminal 800 with a touch screen to display cards when a user of the terminal 800 plays a card game. The method may also be implemented in other electronic games where there the player needs to pick up from a plurality of items shown on a touch screen of a terminal. For example, when there are too many browsing windows open on a browser so that the tabs for each window overlap with each other, or when there are too many applications running on the terminal so that on the terminal's desktop the

corresponding icons folded together, the method in may be implemented when the user wants to pick up one of the browsing windows or one of the application icons.

[0040] The terminal 800 may include, but is not limited to, smart mobile phone, tablet PC, PDA, and laptop portable PC. The method may include the following steps. [0041] Step S301 : displaying all the cards the current user holds on the preset display area of the terminal with the first spacing.

[0042] This step may include: classifying and arranging all the cards of the current user according to the preset classification principle; displaying all the classified and arranged cards of the current user on the preset display area of the terminal with equal spacing, wherein the first spacing is the quotient of the length of the preset display area divided by the quantity of all the cards of the current user.

[0043] The preset classification principle comprises: the preset special cards (e.g., the jokers) are defined as a category, and the cards other than the preset special cards that are of the same suit are defined as a category, wherein the suits are hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs. Of course, those of ordinary skills in the art should understand that, the terminal can classify and arrange all the cards of the current user according to other forms of preset classification principles, for example, the cards with a number contained in the card information that is smaller than or equal to 10 are defined as a category, those with a number contained in the card information that is greater than 10 are defined as a category, and the other cards are defined as a category.

[0044] Step S302: determining the quantity of all the cards the current user holds.

[0045] Step S303 : detecting the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area when the quantity of the cards is greater than or equal to a preset threshold.

[0046] In this step, the preset threshold can be set by the terminal or set by the user during use. When the preset threshold is set by the terminal, the terminal can obtain the preset threshold according to the size of the terminal screen and the minimum inter-card spacing that ensures the user to identify the suit and number information of all the cards. For example, the terminal calculates the quotient of the terminal screen height divided by the minimum spacing between cards that allows the user to identify the suit and number information of all the cards, and sets the integer nearest to the quotient as the preset threshold.

[0047] Step S304: When receiving the spacing change trigger signal, determining the target area in the current preset display area according to the spacing change trigger signal.

[0048] Step S305: displaying all the cards in the target area with the second spacing greater than the first spacing, and displaying part or all of the cards not in the target area of the current preset display area with a third spacing smaller than the first spacing.

[0049] In this step, the cards in the target area with the second spacing may be displayed in the same way as introduced in Step S204.

[0050] Step S305 may further include: displaying the cards of all categories not in the target area of the current preset display area with the third spacing smaller than the first spacing; displaying all the cards in the target area with the second spacing greater than the first spacing, and ensuring that the spacing between two adjacent categories of card is greater than the first spacing, i.e., the spacing between the end position of a preceding category of cards and the start position of the following category of cards is the spacing greater than the first spacing, wherein the sum of all the card spacing after redisplaying is smaller than or equal to the sum of all the card spacing before redisplaying.

[0051] Step S306: detecting a card playing trigger signal that acts on the preset display area.

[0052] In this step, the terminal provides real-time detection of the card playing trigger signal that acts on the preset display area after Step S305 is executed, wherein the card playing trigger signal can be a trigger signal by tapping or double-tapping at least one card in the preset display area in the preset time. For example, the terminal may conduct real-time detection of card playing trigger signal from the target area on the screen for the preset period of time threshold. This preset time threshold is reasonable and conforms to the operation habit of users. For example, the preset time is 10s. It can be understood that the preset time can be adjusted according to the needs, for example, it can be set to 5 s, 15 s, or 20s. If the terminal detects no card playing trigger signal during the preset time threshold, the terminal may resume the card displaying manner in Step S301, i.e., the cards are displayed with the first spacing. Further, the terminal may automatically select a card for the user, send the out the card, and then display the remaining card with the first spacing.

[0053] Step S307: determining the target cards according to the card playing trigger signal when the card playing trigger signal is detected, removing the target card from the cards the user currently holds in the game, and setting the remaining cards as the cards the user holds, and returning to execute Step S301.

[0054] In this step, the terminal, after detecting the card playing trigger signal, determines the target cards according to the card playing trigger signal. For example, when the card playing trigger signal is a trigger signal by tapping or double-tapping at least one card in the preset display area on the touch screen within the preset time, the terminal will identify the tapped or double-tapped cards as target cards and discharge the target cards. The server then updates the cards that the user holds in the card game by removing the target card and displaying the updated cards in the preset display area.

[0055] Figs. 4 and 5 more clearly illustrate the card display method provided in this example embodiment. Fig. 4 shows an application scenario to display cards on a terminal before receiving a spacing change trigger signal. In Fig. 4, all the cards are evenly displayed with a first spacing. The cards are displayed according to the preset classification principle. Category A (i.e., preset area A) includes the preset special cards (e.g., the jokers etc.); category B (i.e., preset area B) includes cards with heart; category C (i.e., preset area C) includes cards with spades; and category D (i.e., preset area D) includes cards with diamonds.

[0056] Fig. 5 shows an application scenario to display cards on the terminal after receiving the spacing change trigger signal. Fig. 5 (a) shows how the cards are displayed on the touch screen of the terminal after the user sends the spacing change trigger signal by pressing and holding on a location in the preset area A for special card. The cards in the preset area A are displayed in the second spacing larger than the first spacing shown in Fig. 4. The second spacing is large enough for the user to use her finger to comfortably select a card in the preset area A. At the same time, the cards in the preset areas B, C, and D are all displayed tighter than before, i.e. the cards are displayed in a third spacing smaller than the first spacing. Meanwhile, cards from different categories, such as the cards in preset area B and preset area C are displayed with a space larger than the first spacing, so that visually the user will find it easier to distinguish Category B cards from Category C cards. The second spacing, third spacing, and the spacing between categories are so determined that the overall length of the area that the cards are displayed remains the same as when the cards are displayed with the first spacing as shown in Fig. 4.

[0057] In a similar fashion, Fig. 5 (b) shows how the cards are displayed on the touch screen of the terminal after the user sends the spacing change trigger signal by pressing and holding on a location in the spade area C; Fig. 5 (c) shows how the cards are displayed on the touch screen of the terminal after the user sends the spacing change trigger signal by pressing and holding on a location in the heart area B; Fig. 5 (d) shows how the cards are displayed on the touch screen of the terminal after the user sends the spacing change trigger signal by pressing and holding on a location in the diamond area D.

[0058] In addition to the features achieved by the first example embodiment, in this example embodiment, the terminal detects the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area only when the quantity of all the cards of the current user is greater than or equal to the preset threshold. It can further shorten the user's time used to select target cards and prolong the cruising time of the terminal, without affecting the user's ability to identify the card information in the target area.

[0059] Fig. 6 shows the structure of a device for displaying cards according to a third example embodiment of the present disclosure; The device may be the terminal 800, which includes a touch screen to display cards when a user of the terminal 800 plays a card game. The device may implement the above methods in the present disclosure. The device includes:

[0060] A card display module 601, configured to display all the cards of the current user on the preset display area of the terminal with equal spacing (i.e., the first spacing);

[0061] A spacing trigger detection module 602, configured to detect the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area;

[0062] A target area determination module 603, configured to determine the target area in the current preset display area according to the spacing change trigger signal, when the spacing change trigger signal is detected; [0063] A spacing change module 604, configured to redisplay all the cards in the target area with a spacing (i.e., the second spacing) greater than the equal spacing.

[0064] In this example embodiment, the card display module 601 first obtains all the cards of the current user, and displays all the obtained cards of the current user in equal spacing on the preset display area of the terminal. The display mode includes, but is not limited to, display according to the card rank sequence in the game rule, display of cards classified and arranged according to the preset classification principle, and display of the current user's all cards at random.

[0065] Wherein all the cards of the current user can be saved on a server managing the card games or in a local card game management module. In the case of stand-alone card games, the card display module 601 directly obtains all the cards of the current user from the local card game management module; in the case of webpage card games or online card games, the card display module 601 obtains all the cards of the current user from the server managing the card games. The preset display area can be a rectangular area on the terminal screen. The equal spacing is obtained according to the length of the preset display area and the quantity of all the cards of the current user. For example, the equal spacing is the quotient of the length of the preset display area divided by the quantity of all the cards of the current user.

[0066] In this example embodiment, the spacing trigger detection module 602 detects the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area in real-time. Wherein the spacing change trigger signal comprises touched position information on the terminal, and the trigger signal can be a trigger signal of long-pressing the preset display area. Those of ordinary skills in the art should understand that the spacing change trigger signal can also be other types of trigger signals, for example, a sliding operation signal acting on the preset display area.

[0067] For a terminal equipped with a touch screen or touch pad, the trigger of aforesaid preset display area includes, but is not limited to, a trigger implemented by the user by directly touching the preset display area on the screen or a trigger implemented using a touch pen. When the terminal uses a resistive touch screen, usually aforesaid preset display area can be triggered using a touch screen; when the terminal uses a capacitive touch screen, the user can directly touch to trigger the preset display area on the screen. Nevertheless, those skilled in the art can understand that aforesaid two trigger modes can be combined to trigger the preset display area on the screen of the same terminal.

[0068] In this example embodiment, when the spacing trigger detection module 602 detects the spacing change trigger signal, the target area determination module 603 determines the target area in the current preset display area according to the detected spacing change trigger signal. Specifically, when the display mode is to display all the cards after they are classified and arranged according to the preset classification principle, the target area determination module 603 obtains the start position and end position of each category of cards on the preset display area, judges which category of cards is taking the area that includes the touched position of the terminal as contained in the spacing change trigger signal according to the start and end position, and finally uses the area of that category of cards where the touched position is located as the target area in the current preset display area. Of course, those of ordinary skills in the art should understand that, when other display modes are adopted, the preset size of area where the touched position is located can be regarded as the target area in the current preset display area.

[0069] After target area determination module 603 determines the target area in the preset display area, spacing change module 604 redisplays all the cards in the target area with the second spacing greater than the first spacing. In this example embodiment, the terminal can compress the spacing between the other cards while enlarging the spacing between all the cards in the target area, so that the overall length of the area that the cards are displayed does not change. Certainly, spacing change module 604 can also display the target cards in the preset displayed area after enlarging the spacing between the target cards and making them overlap the other cards, without changing positions of the other cards in the preset display area.

[0070] In this example embodiment, when the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area is detected, all the cards in the target area obtained according to the spacing change trigger signal are redisplayed using a spacing greater than the previous equal spacing, so that the terminal can clearly display the information of target cards and increase the touchable area of a single card, thereby shortening the user' s time used to select the target cards and prolonging the cruising time of the terminal.

[0071] Fig. 7 shows the structure of a device for displaying cards according to the fourth example embodiment of the present disclosure. The device includes a card display module 701, a card quantity detection module 702, a spacing trigger detection module 703, a target area determination module 704, a spacing change module 705, and a card playing module 706.

[0072] The card display module 701 is configured to display all the cards of the current user on the preset display area of the terminal with the first spacing;

[0073] The card quantity detection module 702 is configured to detect the quantity of all the cards of the current user, and, when the quantity is greater than or equal to the preset threshold, send a detection control signal to spacing trigger detection module 703 ;

[0074] The spacing trigger detection module 703 receives the detection control signal and detects the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area;

[0075] The target area determination module 704, configured to, if the spacing change trigger signal is detected, determine the target area in the current preset display area according to the spacing change trigger signal; [0076] The spacing change module 705, configured to redisplay all the cards in the target area with the second spacing greater than the first spacing, and redisplaying part or all of the cards not in the target area of the current preset display area with the third spacing smaller than the first spacing.

[0077] The card playing module 706 may further include: a detection subunit 7061, configured to, after spacing change module 705 redisplays all the cards in the target area with the second spacing greater than the first spacing, detect the card playing trigger signal acting on the preset display area; card playing subunit 7062, configured to, when the card playing trigger signal is detected, determine the target cards according to the card playing trigger signal, regard the cards other than the target cards as cards of the current user, and send a display control signal to card display module 701.

[0078] In this example embodiment, the card display module 701 receives a display control signal sent from the card playing module 706 and displays all the cards of the current user on the preset display area of terminal with the first spacing.

[0079] The card display module 701 may also include a classification and arrangement subunit (not shown), configured to classify and arrange all the cards of the current user according to the preset classification principle; a classification display subunit (not shown), configured to display all the classified and arranged cards in turn on the preset display area of terminal with equal spacing, wherein the equal spacing is equal to the quotient of the length of the preset display area divided by the quantity of all the cards of the current user.

[0080] The preset classification principle comprises: the preset special cards are defined as a category, and the cards other than the preset special cards that are of the same suit are defined as a category, wherein the suits are hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs. Of course, those of ordinary skills in the art should know that, the terminal can classify and arrange all the cards of the current user according to other forms of preset classification principles, for example, the cards with a number contained in the card information that is smaller than or equal to 10 are defined as a category, those with a number contained in the card information that is greater than 10 are defined as a category, and the other cards are defined as a category.

[0081] In this example embodiment, when the card quantity detection module 702 detects whether the quantity of all the cards of the current user is greater than or equal to the preset threshold, the preset threshold can be decided by the card quantity detection module 702 or set by the user during use. When the preset threshold is decided by the card quantity detection module 702, the card quantity detection module 702 can obtain the preset threshold according to the size of the terminal screen and the minimum spacing between cards that allows the user to identify the suit and number information of all the cards. For example, the card quantity detection module 702 calculates the quotient of the terminal screen height divided by the minimum spacing between cards that allows user to identify the suit and number information of all the cards, and sets the integer nearest to the quotient as the preset threshold.

[0082] The spacing change module 705 may further include: a first change subunit (not shown), configured to redisplay the cards of all categories not in the target area of the current preset display area with a spacing smaller than the first spacing; a second change subunit (not shown), configured to redisplay all the cards in the target area with the second spacing greater than the first spacing, and ensure that the spacing between the end position of a preceding category of cards and the start position of the following category of cards is the spacing greater than the first spacing, wherein the sum of all the card spacing after redisplaying is smaller than or equal to the sum of all the card spacing before redisplaying.

[0083] In this example embodiment, the detection subunit 7061 in the card playing module 706 provides real-time detection of the card playing trigger signal that acts on the preset display area, wherein the card playing trigger signal can be a trigger signal by tapping or double-tapping at least one card in the preset display area in the preset time. For example, the preset time is 10s. This preset time threshold is reasonable and conforms to the operation habit of users. It can be understood that the preset time can be adjusted according to the needs, for example, it can be set to 5s, 15s, or 20s.

[0084] In this example embodiment, after the detection subunit 7061 detects the card playing trigger signal, the card playing subunit 7062 in the card playing module 706 determines the target cards according to the card playing trigger signal. When the card playing trigger signal is a trigger signal by tapping or double-tapping at least one card in the preset display area within the preset time, the card playing subunit 7062 will identity the tapped or double-tapped cards as target cards, regard all the cards other the target cards as the cards the current user hold, and send a display control signal to the card display module 701 so that the cards can be redisplayed in the preset display area.

[0085] Thus according to this example embodiment, the device detects the spacing change trigger signal that acts on the preset display area only when the quantity of all the cards of the current user is greater than or equal to the preset threshold. Consequently, the device can further shorten the user's time used to select target cards and prolong the cruising time of the terminal, without affecting the user's ability to identify the card information in the target area.

[0086] Those of ordinary skills in the art can understand that all or part of the steps in the example embodiments described above can be completed using hardware or completed by using a program to instruct relevant hardware, wherein this program can be stored in a computer readable storage medium and this storage medium can be memory, magnetic disk, CD, and so on.

[0087] Note that what mentioned above is just preferred example embodiments and adopted technical principles of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art should understand that the present disclosure is not restricted by the specific example embodiments described herein, and all kinds of significant alterations, readjustments and replacements made by those skilled in the art should also be considered to fall in the protection scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited by the above example embodiments though these example embodiments describe the present disclosure in detail. More other equivalent example embodiments can be included on the premise of not being deviated from the conception of the present disclosure, and the scope of the present disclosure is decided by the scope stated in the attached claims.

[0088] While example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to devices and methods for displaying cards on the screen of a terminal in a card game, the device and method may also be applied to other Applications. For example, the device and method may be applied to any scenario where there are too many items to display in a readable manner on the screen. For example, when there are too many browsing windows open on a browser so that the tabs for each window pile up, or when there are too many icons in the task bar on the desk top of a terminal that some icons are folded. The present disclosure intends to cover the broadest scope of systems and methods for content browsing, generation, and interaction.

[0089] Thus, example embodiments illustrated in Figures 1-8 serve only as examples to illustrate several ways of implementation of the present disclosure. They should not be construed as to limit the spirit and scope of the example embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that those skilled in the art may still make various modifications or variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the example embodiments. Such modifications and variations shall fall within the protection scope of the example embodiments, as defined in attached claims.

Claims

1. A gaming device with a touch screen, comprising:

a processor-readable storage medium including a set of instructions for displaying cards on the touch screen; and

a processor in communication with the storage medium configured to provide a card game on the device for a user and execute the set of instructions to:

display a plurality of cards the user holds in the card game on a screen of the terminal with a first spacing;

detect a spacing change trigger signal defined by a location of the screen; determine a target area in on the screen according to the location, wherein the target area has at least one card from the plurality of cards being displayed thereon;

display the at least one card in the target area with a second spacing greater than the first spacing.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein to detect the spacing change trigger signal the processor is further configured to execute the set of instructions to:

determine a quantity of the plurality of cards;

detect the spacing change trigger signal only when the quantity is greater than or equal to a preset threshold.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the set of instructions to:

detect a card playing trigger signal acted on the screen;

determine a target cards from the at least one card according to the card playing trigger signal; update the plurality of cards by removing the target card from the plurality of cards; and display the updated plurality of cards on the screen.

4. The device according to claim 3, wherein the spacing change trigger signal comprises a pressing and holding action exerted on a preset display area of the screen;

the card playing trigger signal comprises a tapping action or a double-tapping action on the target card; and

the first spacing is equal to a quotient of the length of a preset display area in which the plurality of cards is displayed divided by a quantity of all the cards of the current user.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the set of instructions to:

categorize the plurality of cards according to a preset classification principle; and

display the plurality of cards based on their respective categories.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein the preset classification principle comprises at least one of:

treating preset special cards in the plurality of cards as a category, and

categorizing the remaining plurality of cards other than the preset special cards based on suits of the plurality of cards, wherein the suits are hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs.

7. The device according to claim 5, wherein to determine the target area the processor is further configured to execute the set of instructions to:

determine an area that a category of the plurality of cards occupies and in which the location of spacing change trigger signal locates; and

treat the area as the target area.

8. The device according to claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the set of instructions to:

display the plurality of cards that are outside the target area with a third spacing smaller than the first spacing.

9. The device according to claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the set of instructions to, for the plurality of cards that are outside the target area:

display cards in a same category with a third spacing smaller than the first spacing; display cards with different category with a fourth spacing greater than the first spacing.

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the second spacing, the third spacing, and the fourth spacing are determined such that the plurality of cards takes a smaller space than displaying the plurality of cards with the first spacing.

11. A method for displaying cards on a terminal with a touch screen, wherein the method comprises:

providing a card game on a terminal for a user; displaying, by the terminal, a plurality of cards the user holds in the card game on a screen of the terminal with a first spacing;

detecting, by the terminal, a spacing change trigger signal that acts on a location of the screen; determining, by the terminal, a target area in on the screen according to the location, wherein the target area has at least one card from the plurality of cards being displayed thereon;

displaying, by the terminal, the at least one card in the target area with a second spacing greater than the first spacing.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the detecting of the spacing change trigger signal comprises:

determining a quantity of the plurality of cards;

detecting the spacing change trigger signal only when the quantity is greater than or equal to a preset threshold.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprises:

detecting, by the terminal, a card playing trigger signal acted on the screen;

determining, by the terminal, a target cards from the at least one card according to the card playing trigger signal;

updating, by the terminal, the plurality of cards by removing the target card from the plurality of cards; and

displaying, by the terminal, the updated plurality of cards on the screen.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the spacing change trigger signal comprises a pressing and holding action exerted on a preset display area of the screen;

15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

categorizing the plurality of cards according to a preset classification principle; and

displaying the plurality of cards based on their respective categories.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the preset classification principle comprises at least one of: treating preset special cards in the plurality of cards as a category, and

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the determining of the target area comprises: determining an area that a category of the plurality of cards occupies and in which the location of spacing change trigger signal locates; and

treating the area as the target area.

18. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

displaying, by the terminal, the plurality of cards that are outside the target area with a third spacing smaller than the first spacing.

19. The method according to claim 15, further comprising, for the plurality of cards that are outside the target area:

displaying, by the terminal, cards in a same category with a third spacing smaller than the first spacing;

displaying, by the terminal, cards with different category with a fourth spacing greater than the first spacing.

20. The method according to claim 9, wherein the second spacing, the third spacing, and the fourth spacing are determined such that the plurality of cards takes a smaller space than displaying the plurality of cards with the first spacing.