Digital twins and virtual reality (VR) are reshaping our work world. Let's delve into the evolution of these technologies and their impact on modern industry, urban planning, and remote teams.

Remote work and digital twin technology can be traced back to the mid-20th century. Now, this technology has made significant progress.

Today, remote work is more common on Earth. According to LinkedIn's Global Remote and Hybrid Work Report released in January 2024, only about 5% of US jobs were classified as remote in 2017 and 2018. Now, according to the LinkedIn report, 24% of jobs (at least those related to newly added jobs in LinkedIn profiles) are remote.

With the continued trend, the combination of digital twins with virtual reality, augmented reality, and other technologies may usher in a new era of collaboration, even if the communicators are far apart.

Understanding the concept of digital twins

In simple terms, a digital twin is a digital clone of a real-world system that is regularly updated with current telemetry data.

"In simple terms, a digital twin should have intelligent elements such as simulation or artificial intelligence to predict and make decisions about the future. Digital twin systems also include processes that trigger these decisions (often automated, but there are also many examples of human involvement in business processes)," said David McKee, Digital Twin Ambassador and Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Research Fellow, in an email.

Digital twins combine software representations of the original objects (whether CAD or other computer models) with data sources that provide extensive telemetry data, enabling the model to have real-time knowledge of the condition and status of the twinned specific original objects. Digital twins can be used to represent and analyze various aspects of the original objects and predict their future behavior and condition through simulated testing and current data analysis of the digital twin.

Digital twins are being used to support the management of factories and even cities. To learn more about digital twins and extended reality (XR), please refer to my guide.

Virtual reality inspection

Meanwhile, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and extended reality play a crucial role in connecting digital twins and remote collaboration. If you realize that you can simulate an entire factory, it is not difficult to understand the benefits of being able to walk through a virtual version of the factory.

With the launch of the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro and the $500 Meta Quest 3, XR has become quite practical, although it is still a bit cumbersome to use.

Many of us have collaborated on something in Google Docs. When I make changes to a document while a remote editor 3,000 miles away is editing it in real-time, my changes are immediately visible to her, greatly improving our work efficiency. Of course, mistakes can also happen. I have experienced chaotic situations in Google Docs, where 10 people were simultaneously editing the same document in a Zoom meeting.

If we're not that extreme, collaborative document editing is great for fine-tuning whitepapers or articles. But what if you're designing a new coffee machine? Some computer-aided design (CAD) programs allow you to share screens. Zoom and similar products also allow screen sharing, but in both cases, the modeled objects are still presented in a flat two-dimensional space.

On the other hand, imagine that you're designing that coffee machine, and now the three members in the meeting are all in the same virtual kitchen. Each person can look down and see how much space there is when the coffee machine lid is open. You can rotate and adjust the coffee machine on the countertop, just as if you were there in person, examining its appearance and whether it is easy to touch and operate.

The kitchen can be completely virtual (virtual reality immersion) or a real kitchen with a virtual coffee pot on the countertop (mixed reality). This doesn't really matter, at least for current designers. The key is that the physicality of the object is now more intuitive.

Let's zoom in a bit. Suppose you're not designing a coffee pot, but a car. Looking at photos and renderings of the car is nice, but with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), you can place the car directly on the street, walk up to it, observe it from various angles, and even sit in the virtual cockpit (in your own physical space) to experience the visibility, usability, and accessibility of various instruments and controls.

Let's zoom in even further. We're still thinking about designing a car, but now we're designing a factory. In a virtual reality environment, you can move between workstations and intuitively see the distance between machines, the movement of production paths, and even the lighting conditions of the environment. You can perform these operations together with team members, so if you point to something in the factory, they can also see it from a seemingly real perspective.

Intelligent interconnected ecosystems of various scales

In Autodesk's 2022 report on digital twins, the company predicts that by 2025, 500 cities will operate digital twins. In addition, by 2026, 91% of Internet of Things (IoT) platforms will offer some form of digital twin capability, and by 2028, digital twins will become a standard part of IoT empowerment.

The ability to see and simulate critical aspects of a system can lead to wiser decisions and better return on investment. By being able to predict "traps" in operations and test solutions in simulations, operations can be smoother, and maintenance can be more proactive, preventive, and fundamentally lower in cost.

The major beneficiaries of digital twins are architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) companies, which can provide more services, value, and long-term strategic benefits derived from better prediction and preventive intelligence.

According to data from market research firm MarketsandMarkets Research, the total value of the global digital twin market in 2023 is $10 billion, and it is expected to grow at an annual rate of 61%, reaching $110 billion by 2028. Driving this growth is the widespread application of digital twins in predictive maintenance, which, when combined with artificial intelligence, is expected to have a profound impact on solving costly operational issues and challenges.

Virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) are part of this solution. As the prices of these headsets decrease (more importantly, their size and weight decrease), they will be more widely adopted. There is a huge difference between seeing a block on a computer display and walking in a virtual block with the surrounding environment.

When applied to digital twins, the intuitive advantages of XR are not just another technology. This change in perspective has the potential to unlock observations and insights that may not be apparent on a small screen.