What is it about?

Digital twins are virtual reflections of real-world entities, with a continuous flow of data. We wanted to see how they have been discussed in human-computer interaction research, particularly from design perspectives. Thus we conducted a literature review, and present dimensions of digital twins which are based on the shared characteristics we found in literature.

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Why is it important?

Based on our review of literature, we present five dimensions of digital twins that can be used in designing digital twins from a human-computer interaction perspective. While the presented dimensions arise from digital twin as a technical construct, they attempt to capture the essence that experts should be aware of to have a critical look at the digital twin as a construct, and to consider how human-computer interaction perspectives and approaches can be used in digital twin design.

Perspectives

While the discussion on digital twins is becoming aware of issues related to modelling and limitations of the digital part of the twin, the discussion on politics and power are still largely missing. Currently, there is a lack of consideration on the fundamental characteristics of a digital twin, and this can cause exclusion through limitations in data, views, and understanding. So far, the work on digital twins has not incorporated many HCI principles. We suggest looking at the digital twin as a conceptual construct that can help us handle to a real-world entity. There are some initial intentions to utilize digital twins beyond a industry or tool view, for example in education or smart cities. We would be interested in possibilities of framing a social phenomenon as a digital twin.

Fanny Vainionpää
Oulun Yliopisto

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This page is a summary of: HCI and Digital Twins – A Critical Look, November 2022, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3569219.3569376.
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