Digital Twin, Metaverse, Virtual Reality: What the Future Holds

• First introduced in 2002, digital twin is gaining the attention of tech developers and enthusiasts.
• The concept seems to hold greater potential as metaverse develops.
• Experts consider virtual reality as a crucial integration for the future of humanity.

Digital twin is a digital representation of an entity which can be a physical product, system and process which is simulated to effectively understand its functionality, shortcomings and efficiency. Metaverse, which acts as a fully immersive virtual environment, can integrate and advance VR when combined with digital twin technology for various purposes.

Understanding Digital Twin and its extensive utility

Digital twin, aka virtual twin, can be a 3D digitalized version of anything – any good, system, hardware, an inter-unit process, a service process and can even be any of these entities which have not gained existence yet but are intended to be prototyped. With the super advanced technology we possess today, it has become almost indistinguishable from the real entity.

It doesn’t stop at that. The digital twin also keeps updating itself with real-time data. Thus it represents not only the entity but also the entire run or life cycle of the entity. It uses simulation and machine learning to evolve and perform correspondingly. It collects data using IoT-connected sensors and cameras. Live data can also be fed into models to optimize and update operations. The incoming data from the physical twin, thus, helps the digital twin to grow or change along.

This enables the digital twin to evolve, analyse data, perform analytical decision making, monitor systems, predict results, detect problems and solve them before they even occur. It can also help build future strategy and discover new opportunities. The concept and model of digital twin was first introduced by Michael Grieves in 2002 at a conference of Society of Manufacturing Engineers in Troy, Michigan.

Some applications of Digital Twin in Metaverse

Digital Twin dramatically expands the usability of virtual reality. Currently, Metaverse arguably is the leader in the space of VR. Demonstrations for the use cases of Digital Twin technology have already been well established across various industries such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, transport, life sciences, research, construction, engineering, etc.

According to a survey conducted by AVEVA, about 85% of industrial businesses plan to increase their digital investments,. Recent analysis by Emergen Research says that the global market of Digital Twin can be expected to reach a whopping $106.26 Billion by 2028 at a sturdy revenue CAGR of 54.7%.

The buzz is that this combination of Digital Twin and Metaverse to significantly enhance the application of metaverse and its industrial usability is being called the ‘industrial metaverse’. And Digital Twins are the building blocks of this industrial metaverse.

For example, a fashion e-commerce company has a virtual store in the metaverse where customers can try on clothes.”. The customer can simply have a digital twin walk into the store and put on the digital twins of the clothes to match their real measurements and have a real time experience of how that outfit looks on them. This would ultimately increase sales as there’s less hesitation to purchase clothing items online.

A technical training program can also be hosted in metaverse, adding more value to the training as the participants can engage first hand with 3D representations of complex systems with the help of digital twins.In manufacturing, digital twins can be deployed to provide an overview of the production process by simulating it entirely, optimizing efficiency, reducing waste, and providing proactive solutions to potential problems..

Development of smart cities, training of surgeons, research processes, 3D virtual models of whole storage units, inventories, godowns and retail stores, customized automobile and its safety testing by using virtual models, among many others, are some emerging use cases of integrating digital twin technology on metaverse that stand to benefit greatly from it.