Using a pair of augmented reality glasses, a Marine signals intelligence (SIGINT) specialist monitors web traffic while he lies on the ground, his assault rifle trained on a nearby building. Amid the cacophony of cyber-noise in the city -- the thousands of simultaneous, harmless Skype sessions, movie streams, and Internet searches -- the Marine has zeroed in on a possible insurgent, who is currently flipping through financial data on a spreadsheet. Perhaps the suspect will make a mistake, and open up a mapping application that will show where he's planning to meet an arms dealer to buy plastique.

The Marine glances at the vital statistics on the heads-up display. The heart rate of his point man has suddenly spiked up to 110. Using a mouse mounted on the handguard of his M-16, the SIGINT specialist silently clicks open the video feed from the point man's head-mounted camera. A convoy of enemy pickups is headed directly towards the platoon. The Marine pushes out an alert to the rest of the platoon and then switches from dual-display mode to left-only as he raises his weapon to his eye.