A Human Digital Twin as Building Block of Open Identity Management for the Internet of Things

In networked industry, digital twins aggregate product data along the entire life cycle, from design and production to deployment. This enables interoperability between different data sources and analysis functions and creates an integrated data environment. Human digital twins have the potential to create a similarly interoperable and integrated data environment for more user-centric use cases in the field of the Internet of Things. In this case, personal data is processed and transmitted; therefore, the underlying infrastructure is then not product data management but identity management. In this paper, we discuss general aspects of the human digital twin, its role in open identity management systems, and illustrate its application in the field of home, building and office automation. We identify advantages and limitations and suggest future research opportunities.