Metaverse and extended reality design with digital twins
Christian Stary · Research Features · 2024
he eagerly anticipated next phase of the internet, or Web3, will shift away from centralised platforms to a decentralised user network, providing increased control over virtual activities and data.In this changing digital landscape, users would be placed in the cusp between the physical world and the 'metaverse', a vast virtual space that allows them to conduct everyday activities while connecting with virtual environments and digital objects.Mixed-reality is a mixture of real-world and virtual content, such as Instagram filters and virtual furniture fitting applications whereas extended reality or XR is an umbrella term for augmented reality, in which digital elements are overlaid on the physical world, mixed reality, and virtual reality.Metaverse applications and the technologies supporting mixed-reality and XR are developed to let users buy goods, pay bills, socialise, and manage relationships with colleagues online using avatars.Headmounted displays will be required to interact with these technologies and applications, and this duality of physical and virtual activity leads to complex design challenges.A Digital Twin (DT) is a high-fidelity computational model of a physical or virtual ecosystem that uses real-time data to simulate behaviour and monitor operations.DTs provide optimisation using feedback between a system and its model.A Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is a complex adaptive system that combines physical