HTC has announced a new accessory for Vive Pro owners that can track facial movements such as lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin and cheeks.

The Vive Facial Tracker uses two cameras and an infrared illuminator to capture and track up to 38 different facial movements and muscle undulations The Vive Facial Tracker will be available on March 24 for $129.99

The Vive Facial Tracker According to the press release announcing the launch of the Vive Facial Tracker, the Facial Tracker features dual 60Hz cameras with "accurate, high-performance, responsive tracking." HTC has also announced that the Vive Facial Tracker, Vive Tracker and Vive Pro Eye combined to encourage users to have a complete "head-to-toe" VR experience.

In addition to the Vive Facial Tracker, HTC also showcased a third iteration of the Vive Tracker, which also has a longer battery and the ability to offer a 240-degree field of view.

According to UploadVR, HTC first mentioned lip tracking at the 2019 Game Developers Conference. At the time, the company said it had no plans to release lip tracking technology. This could help move things forward on having a more realistic presence in terms of avatars, which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing for.

As virtual reality becomes more profitable, other companies like Valve and Facebook continue to invest in the technology. Samsung introduced its Odyssey headset last year. And now rumors are flying that Apple is also working on a mixed reality headset.