Facebook, which is now called Meta, said that a special team under its “Project Cambria” is now working on a new high-end virtual reality headset. The new product will be utilized in the company’s metaverse, a virtual environment envisioned as the future of the internet.

At Meta’s Connect conference on Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased the company’s upcoming product. The CEO displayed photos and videos of what the product could look like. The company said the VR headset should be available by next year.

The VR headset will be a standalone all-in-one device that will be a more powerful version of the Oculus Quest headsets. The high-end device will include sophisticated new technologies, including improved social presence, color Passthrough, advanced optics, and more. Project Cambria will be a high-end gadget with a premium price tag, presumably much more expensive than the company’s $299 Oculus Quest headsets.

Cambria, according to Meta, will have capabilities that are not available on other VR headsets. This includes technology that employs integrated sensors to allow a user’s virtual avatar to maintain eye contact and imitate facial emotions.

Meta said its new Cambria VR headset should help people who are immersed in the virtual world to better grasp how others are feeling. Another focus of the headgear will be mixed-reality experiences. Using sensors and innovative reconstruction techniques, Cambria will be able to display items in the actual world with a sense of depth and perspective.

Meta claims that Cambria’s improved optics would boost visual quality. More details on the VR headgear will be provided next year. Meanwhile, third-party developers are already working on headgear experiences.

Zuckerberg unveiled the company’s new name, Meta, at the Facebook Connect event. The CEO emphasized that Facebook is now a metaverse corporation rather than a social media one. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram will still retain the same branding but under the Meta umbrella.