English

Noun

flying mouse ‎(plural flying mice)

distribution of a flying mouse species
(Idiurus macrotis)

1. Any species of rodent in the genus Idiurus, 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 (Idiurus macrotis)