Metaverse is a virtual environment where you can find all physical things, services, friends and family, etc in one place. Digital twin in metaverse is an important part of its environment and plays a critical role.
The starting point of development of any metaverse is the creation of a digital twin in the metaverse. Digital Twin in Metaverse refers to digital replicas of any physical objects or world in terms of its physical properties and its behavior.
This post presents you the concept of using digital twins in the metaverse. It will first present you with the concept of digital twin and its application. Then, it will introduce you to the concept of using digital twins in the metaverse and an example of it.
Next, it will briefly explain the architecture and the security & privacy issues of digital twin in the metaverse. Finally, it will end with importance of digital twin in metaverse.
WHAT IS DIGITAL TWIN?
Digital Twin is a large scale and high definition models and entities of real physical world in virtual environments. Digital Twin reflects each and every property of its physical counterparts such as
- Object dimensions
- Object Motion
- Temperature
- Functions of the object
TYPES OF DIGITAL TWIN
There are 2 types of Digital Twins listed below.
- Digital Twin Protype (DTP)
- Digital Twin Instance (DTI)
The virtual environment where a digital twin operates is called Digital Twin Environment (DTE). So, in context to digital win in metaverse, metaverse is the Digital Twin Environment (DTE). In the next section, I will briefly explain the two types of Digital Twin.
DIGITAL TWIN PROTYPE (DTP)
DTP is the first type of digital twin which proptypes or draft version of physical objects. DTP contains all the information that are necessary to describe and produce the digital twin in DTE. The information to make a DTP as mentioned here includes fully annotated 3D model, material specifications, services, process associated with the objects, etc.
DIGITAL TWIN INSTANCE (DTI)
Digital Twin Instance (DTI) is the 2nd type of Digital Twin where its physical counterparts remain linked to it throughout the lifecycle of the physical object.
DTI must include
- Annotated 3D model
- Dimensions
- Materials
- Service
- Process
- etc associated with the physical object.
APPLICATION OF DIGITAL TWIN
Digital Twin have numerios application in industry, science, gaming, academic research, etc, Digital Twin enables you to provide process prediction and risk prevention in real physical world based on data input.
Moreover, Digital Twin shows the effect of real objects or products so that you can simulate it in different environments without posing risk. Many industries are using digital twin to carry out many tasks. Digital Twin is empowering smart vehicles, healthcare systems, IoT, Industry 4.0 etc.
Digital Twin applications in science and technology reduce production time and help in preparing final products, retail market modeling, climate prediction, etc. You can read here how Nvidia Omiverse is using digital twin from this blog post.
DIGITAL TWIN IN METAVERSE
A digital twin is the exact 3D copy of a physical object of our real world in a metaverse.
Digital Twin in metaverse is the digital twin instance (DTI) type of digital twin. The digital twin in metaverse is linked to it physical counterparts in its whole lifecycle.
In the metaverse Digital Twin has 4 major elements. They are listed below.
- The Physical Real World Object
- The Virtual Or Digital Object in Metaverse
- Link for Data Flow from Physical World to Metaverse
- Link for Data Flow from Metaverse to Physical World.
The diagram below describes the concept of digital twin in Metaverse.
EXAMPLE OF DIGITAL TWIN IN METAVERSE
For more clarification of how the digital twin in the metaverse is made,I will provide you an example. For making a digital twin in the metaverse , 6 steps are followed.
The steps are mentioned below and these are in sequential manner
- 2D Paper
- 2D Digital Map
- 3D Digital Map
- High Defination (HD) Live Map
- Indoor City
- Digital Twin
ARCHITECTURE OF DIGITAL TWIN IN METAVERSE
This section of blog post will explain briefly a 3 layer architecture of digital twin in metaverse. This 3 layer architecture shows the relationship between Digital Twin and Metaverse.
The 3 layer architecture of digital twin and metaverse has 3 components as mentioned below.
- Physical or Real World Layer
- User Interface Layer
- Metaverse Layer or Digital World Layer.
The detailed explanation of the 3 layer architecture of digital twin in metaverse will be explained in a later post.
SECURITY AND PRIVACY CHALLENGES OF USING DIGITAL TWIN IN METAVERSE
In this section, I will briefly touch on some security and privacy challenges of using digital twin in metaverse. Data Security is the main security challenge of using digital twin in metaverse.
Alowith data security, there are other 8 security challenges as mentioned below.
- Integrity
- Confidentiality
- Availability
- Authentication
- Central Management
- Identity Management
- Data Duplication
- Cyber Attack
More detailed discussion on every aspect of Security Challenges Of Using Digital Twin In Metaverse will be discussed in an upcoming post.
Privacy is not a fixed bounded demand, it is based on users demand and conditions. There are 7 privacy issues regarding using Digital Twin in metaverse as mentioned below
- Trust
- Users Privacy
- Assets Ownership Proof
- Ownership Transferring
- Money Laundering
- Conditional Privacy
- Government Monitoring
More detailed discussion will be done in an upcoming post.
IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL TWIN IN METAVERSE
You have seen there are many benefits and importance in using the digital twin metaverse.Transparency is one the feature of using digital twin in metaverse. Every transaction using any digital twin is immutable and transparent. This enable you to remain protected against cyber frauds in metaverse.
As you might now be aware that digital twin in metaverse is Digital Twin Instance (DTI) type of metaverse. The digital twin are linked to real world procust or character. So, the product lifecycle is saved.
Further, peer-peer communication in the metaverse can be made using digital twin with no intermediary. Moreover, metaverse provides decentralized infrastructure for digital twin. Therefore, applying a digital twin in the metaverse is a good and reliable choice.
ENDNOTE
Summing up, this post presented you the concept of using digital twins in the metaverse. It provided you with the concept of digital twin and its application. You came to know the concept of using digital twin in the metaverse and an example of it.
Next, I briefly explained the architecture and the security & privacy issues of digital twin in metaverse. At the end, you came to know the importance of digital twin in metaverse. In the upcoming post, detailed discussion will be done in each and every topic I have covered.
