flying mouse

English

Noun

flying mouse (plural flying mice)

distribution of a flying mouse species
()

1. Any species of rodent in the genus , native to parts of tropical Africa, which have the ability to glide.
2. (computing) An input device like a mouse that can be lifted from a surface and moved in three dimensions.
   • 1992, "Maurice Sharp", INDUSTRY: VPL's MicroCosm - Clarification from VPL (on newsgroup sci.virtual-worlds)

     The system I quoted […] was a full system: 486 PC 8megRAM 140HD, 2 DVI boards, 1 Ascension Bird flying mouse (6D mouse with 3 buttons, used for navigation and interaction), 1 VirtualResearch Headmounted display, 1 Logitech Sonic 6D tracker for headmount, Sense8 software and environment.

   • 1993, "ala...@cerritos.edu", Help! PC System Configuration (on newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware)

     My hope is that the system would be as friendly as possible. So, i like ^[sic] to know how to start looking into possible I/O devices. i.e. flying mouse, voice activated programs, video capture card?...

   • 2008, Dan Gookin, Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies (page 165)

     Oh, and those wacky nonstandard mice — including the infamous 3D flying mouse — they need their own software to do their tricks.

Derived terms

• long-eared flying mouse ()

Further reading

• flying mouse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Idiurus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Idiurus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons