The technological evolution the world is going through right now focuses on two great technologies – Metaverse and 3D digital Twin Technology. The focal point of these two technologies is shortening the gap between the human and the digital world. With the prominence of Metaverse, the critical areas of application that have been head turners are:

• Avatars and their application
• Photogrammetry (scanning objects to get reliable information)
• Linking digital twins with live data

Our focus here will be on digital twin and how it relates to Metaverse.

Digital Twin

As the name suggests, a digital twin is the exact copy of an object (a room, a building, an outdoor space, or any object placed in that space) made digitally. When we use technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a digital copy of a real-world object in such a way that the models produced can be updated whenever there is any change in their physical counterpart, it is called a digital twin. Digital twin technology brings authenticity by creating exact replicas of the physical world object or person in the virtual world, creating implausible experiences.

Digital Twin – An Essential Building Block of Metaverse

The amalgam of the Metaverse and the Digital twin technology can do wonders in the world of virtual reality. Let us take a few examples of the scenarios where digital-twin technology is working in the Metaverse:

• Imagine entering an e-commerce fashion store and trying the clothes on yourself before even buying them. Or, to be more advanced, let’s imagine that your digital twin avatar tries the clothes first so that the accurate measurements can be matched and you can decide how it will look.
• Similarly, in a technical environment, while training, if a technical expert operates on a 3D representation of the complex systems, it would be very convenient and effortless for the trainees to understand the whole concept.
• Also, in professional meetings, if the participants could interact with a replica of the company’s instruments, equipment, and information system, then it would be no less than a physical meeting

These scenarios depict how indispensable and pivotal digital twin technology is for the Metaverse. It can help build a metaverse that is very close to reality and serves more efficient experiences to the users. These inconceivable properties of digital twins make them the essential building blocks of the Metaverse.

Digital Twin – How Does It Work?

The working of digital Twin in the Metaverse can be explained with the three essential components:

• Product: This gives us an idea of how the digital twin technology will be used to design products in the Metaverse, which are carved according to real-world objects.
• Production: Production refers to using Digital Twin technologies to validate the procedure of building the products mentioned in the first step.
• Performance: The third part focus on tracking and analyzing the performance of the digital objects with their counterparts in the real world. The performance results provide insights and feedback that can be used to enhance the quality and performance of the systems and build more efficient methods.

Areas of Application of 3D Twin Technology

As already said, the 3D Twins are building blocks of the Metaverse and play a pivotal role in the functioning areas of the Metaverse. With Digital Twin technologies, the metaverse infrastructure can be boosted globally in many ways:

• It will help determine the current state of the asset and predict its future state by simply monitoring its virtual counterpart.
• Implementing Digital Twins in Metaverse can facilitate businesses to get a better perception of the product and its performance and improve customer service.

The areas where the application of 3D Digital Twins can be favorable and instrumental are:

Manufacturing

Digital twin technology has a vast area of applications when it comes to manufacturing. The virtual replica of the process can significantly impact the overall process of how the products are designed, manufactured, and maintained. Thus, making them more effective, efficient, and optimized while reducing the overall time of their making.

Automobiles

The implementation of Digital Twins in the automobile sector can bring a whole lot of opportunities to the table. Creating a virtual model of a physical vehicle can help capture the functionalities and modes of behavior. This, in turn, will aid in analyzing the upgrading of the running performance of the car. Customers can get a real experience of automobiles and personalized service for any part of their vehicle with virtual twins. Automobile expos and virtual showrooms are a thing of the future in Metaverse, and they will surely be a win-win.

Retail

3D virtual models of showrooms and products can appeal to the customers, thus elevating the retail customer experience to a new level by creating and delivering customers an authentic experience in the unreal world. Other areas where digital twins can be a boon for the retail industry are in-store planning, administrating and improvising security, and controlling energy in an optimized manner.

Healthcare Industry

The importance of digital twins in the healthcare industry is massive. Digital twins can help the healthcare industry to enhance the performance of devices and medicines. The digital twins can extract necessary information from wearable devices and monitor patient health conditions. We can also customize medical treatments to individuals based on their medical condition, genetic behaviors, and other factors or preventive measures for the patients with personalized health care.

Smart Cities

Virtual Singapore is a live and existing example of a smart city. The digital twins in Metaverse can help to:

• boost economic development
• effective and efficient management of human resources
• reduce the ecological footprint and thus simultaneously improve the quality of life in both the physical and virtual worlds.

Industrial Internet of Things (IoT)

Digital Twins can help industrial firms to survey, trace and control their systems digitally. The digital twin maintains and records the systems’ operational data, which is handy in fetching vital information like location, configuration, and financial models, thus anticipating and enhancing future operations.

Conclusion

If Metaverse is focussing on mingling the virtual and real world, then the digital twin is the tool that can make this dream come true. 3D spatial data technology, digital twins, and simulation technology can easily create a replica of a physical object or space. With this technology, businesses and enterprises can explore and virtually reach out to any possible part of the world and pave the path for countless future metaverse services.