Digital twin has recently attracted growing attention, leading to intensive
research and applications. Along with this, a new research area, dubbed as
"human digital twin" (HDT), has emerged. Similar to the conception of digital
twin, HDT is referred to as the replica of a physical-world human in the
digital world. Nevertheless, HDT is much more complicated and delicate compared
to digital twins of any physical systems and processes, due to humans' dynamic
and evolutionary nature, including physical, behavioral, social, physiological,
psychological, cognitive, and biological dimensions. Studies on HDT are
limited, and the research is still in its infancy. In this paper, we first
examine the inception, development, and application of the digital twin
concept, providing a context within which we formally define and characterize
HDT based on the similarities and differences between digital twin and HDT.
Then we conduct an extensive literature review on HDT research, analyzing
underpinning technologies and establishing typical frameworks in which the core
HDT functions or components are organized. Built upon the findings from the
above work, we propose a generic architecture for the HDT system and describe
the core function blocks and corresponding technologies. Following this, we
present the state of the art of HDT technologies and applications in the
healthcare, industry, and daily life domain. Finally, we discuss various issues
related to the development of HDT and point out the trends and challenges of
future HDT research and development