Our Story

You may notice the turquoise thematic. Futuristic technology is usually themed with a blue hue. XPHERA intersects advanced technology with earthly nature, the origin of its turquoise thematic. This bridge is what allows us to empower our users with a hand held experience that navigates them through spaces of artistic and historic significance. By providing travelers an immediate sense of direction, we foster a deeper sense of inclusion and community than what was previously possible, even in unfamiliar spaces.

Back when we started in 2021, XPHERA did not start out as a navigation and tour platform for museums, airports, and arboretums. We were originally providing a mobile app to help the lost traveler traverse new cities and their downtown corridors, inspired by the navigation technologies shown only in science fiction, including STAR TREK and Tony Stark's helmet. Our engineers and researchers across the United States and Europe have developed, and continue to improve upon our proprietary Visual Positioning System (VPS), which allows us to obtain state of the art accuracy and independence from GPS. XPHERA holds the highest standards in the industry when it comes to providing a reliable hand-held indoor navigational experience.

Seeing our progress, the operators of spaces with historical and artistic significance began to see the benefits of integrating with XPHERA, and asked us to take some time to learn more about their facilities. The Indianapolis International Airport requested for our services after they attempted to build their own mobile app. Surprisingly, this also facilitated a key pivot in how we were developing our underlying technology.

In 2021, we initially made a major mistake of attempting to do it ourselves and build a personal navigation system by aggregating only open source location information. But we learned that the best information comes from those working on the ground: the operators of facilities whose overarching responsibility was to guide their visitors and provide a sense of home.

We now service a variety of spaces ranging from museums, international airports, to arboretums. Our technology overlays relevant information and wayfinding on a person's environment in real-time, empowering our users with a sense of autonomy and direction in an unfamiliar space.

Our Visionaries

“We look to a world where technology seamlessly integrates with reality, enhancing the human experience and improving lives.”

XPHERA Inc. stands at the forefront of innovation and design, backed by over 20 years of collective expertise in cutting-edge technology.

JohnGabriel Nyugen-Truong

Founder & CEO

I come from a family of travelers—exiles, to put it more accurately. My dad escaped Vietnam into the ocean on a fishing boat passing the notice of the agents by hiding under blocks of ice in the fish bin. He made it to Malaysia before destroying his own boat. My mom escaped Vietnam the day Saigon fell under heavy gunfire on a small navy boat to Guam. Since I was a child, I've been able to travel around the States, starting where I was born in Atlanta. Traveling to new cities, it's been a common feeling lost in new places, with city centers and crowded centers being a common place for this. I’ve been lost.

Science fiction has been showcasing the abilities in STAR TREK and Tony Stark’s helmet to have the ability to map out one’s surroundings, provide real-time data, and highlight points of interest such as enemy positions, flight trajectories, and environmental hazards. Why not make this a reality for everyone? Solving the inadequacies of navigation was our mission in 2021 and drives us to where we are now.

Susheel Nath

VP, Innovations & Partnerships

I empathize with the adventurous but lost traveler. At the age of 4, my family moved over 1300 kilometers from the southeast Tamil Nadu to the most populous city in India—the west coast of Mumbai, India. Before my higher education, I had the opportunity to complete my studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then earned my Bachelors in Computer Science Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in Dubai. Afterwards, I earned my Master's in Computer Science - Augmented and Virtual Reality, from Ireland's leading university, Trinity College Dublin.

I've been around the globe navigating art galleries and airports in the Middle East to all around Western Europe to major cities in the States, including the Brussels Airport, O'Hare Chicago Airport, the John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the Dubai International Airport. I bring my personal experiences as an international traveler to the forefront of XPHERA's mission, advocating for a superior and more accessible tour and navigation experience for all. On countless motorcycle travels across Ireland and Europe, I envision ways to connect with leaders and advocates to uncover new opportunities and redefine the frontiers of innovation.

Brandon Friend

VP, Engineering

Jonathan Kline

Head of GIS Engineering

Rodrigo Souza

Cloud Architect

Inspiring Human Connections Through Innovation

We recognize that storytelling lies at the heart of human connection. Facilities with historic and artistic significance are more than just spaces—they are custodians of human-centric stories waiting to be shared.

At XPHERA, we bring these stories to life through immersive digital experiences, connecting people to the rich narratives of history, art, and culture in ways that inspire and resonate deeply.

Our approach doesn’t just celebrate history, art, and culture—it reimagines how people engage with them, creating moments of discovery and connection that resonate far beyond the experience itself.

Our Vision

“We look forward to a world where technology seamlessly integrates with reality, enhancing the human experience and improving lives.”

This is why the XPHERA team plays to half of our capabilities.
The other half comes from understanding the actual visions, goals, and motivations of our partners and their customers.

From there, we labor to move the missions of our partners forward.

XPHERA Inc. stands at the forefront of innovation and design, backed by over 20 years of collective expertise in cutting-edge technology.

Executive Leadership

JohnGabriel Nguyen-Truong

Founder & CEO

I come from a family of exiles, fighters, and revolutionaries.

This fuels the vision and drive behind XPHERA. And with this, every individual in our team plays a critical role in driving us forward.

My dad escaped Vietnam into the ocean on a fishing boat passing the notice of the agents by hiding under blocks of ice in the fish bin. He made it to Malaysia before destroying his own boat. My mom escaped Vietnam the day Saigon fell under heavy gunfire on a small navy barge to Guam.

Since I was a child, I've been able to travel around the States, starting where I was born in Atlanta. Traveling to new cities, it's been a common feeling lost in new places, with city centers and crowded centers being a common place for this. I’ve been lost.

Science fiction has been showcasing the abilities in STAR TREK and Tony Stark’s helmet to have the ability to map out one’s surroundings, provide real-time data, and highlight points of interest such as enemy positions, flight trajectories, and environmental hazards. Why not make this a reality for everyone? Solving the inadequacies of navigation was our mission in 2021 and drives us to where we are now.

It is fundamental to understand that nothing worthwhile can be accomplished alone. This is why the XPHERA team plays to half of our capabilities. The other half comes from understanding the actual visions, goals, and motivations of our partners and their customers. From there, we labor to move the missions of our partners forward.

I still remember what Steve told me when we were chatting about XPHERA’s work:

“I love that — you’re actually one of those doers —” (Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple Inc.)

Susheel Nath

Vice President, Innovations & Partnerships

With over 2 decades of experience spearheading new technology and traveling around the globe, I took on a major role as Head of Research & Development in XPHERA's founding team, working hand in hand with our founder to spearhead the XPHERA platform from concept to state of the art level production. With the XPHERA platform, we have been honored to serve the visitors of major client facilities in the Midwest, including the Evansville Wartime Museum, WillowTree Arboretum, and the Indianapolis International Airport. In parallel, I have been honored to spearhead new innovations from concept to production, including my leadership at MoveAhead in Dublin and FARI - AI for the Common Good Institute in Brussels.

Brandon Friend

Vice President, Engineering

My journey as a technologist into developing navigational and GIS solutions was a personal one. Over a decade, my multidisciplinary experience comes from heading the efforts of various firms at the intersection of hardware fabrication, software architecture, and blockchain. Most people get socks, I got servers—and my spare bedroom transformed into a buzzing tech lab with industrial-grade server hardware.

It all started with the chaos of Atlanta Airport when I was visiting my family. If you’ve ever sprinted through that massive labyrinth—dodging crowds, hopping on trams, and barely making your flight—you know it’s a unique kind of chaos. By the time I collapsed into my seat, drenched in sweat and stripped of dignity, I thought, “I’d rather die than do this again.”

This wasn’t just a frustrating experience—it was a wake-up call. Dropping people into unfamiliar buildings and expecting them to navigate efficiently without adequate support isn’t just a logistical failure; it’s bad for business. The entire ordeal was a stark reminder of how outdated and unintuitive navigation systems can fail travelers. That moment cemented my resolve to create solutions that make navigating spaces effortless, empowering, and dare I say, even enjoyable. This is the level of innovation we are driving in the industry.

Today, as a father to my daughter, I want to inspire curiosity in the next generation through tools they already use—turning their smartphones into vehicles for discovery and imagination. XPHERA tackles this key challenge everyday: bridging the gap between navigation and information, and creating experiences that bring environments to life. We are not just building a platform to help people find their way but one that also enriches their understanding of the spaces they navigate. Meeting the team for the first time was eye opening. We spent hours brainstorming new ways to push our technology further, driven by a shared passion for innovation.

My journey into technology began with my father, an engineer who instilled in me a love for self-education and problem-solving. While other kids traded baseball cards, I was elbow-deep in my dad’s electronic waste bin, dismantling gadgets to see how they worked. My Korean grandmother was born in Japan during a time of great upheaval and she fled to Korea during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pirates attacked her and she lost everything besides her own life, starting all over on a farm. My grandfather led a vital part of South Korea's military effort with his expertise in telecommunications and reconnaissance. Their shared determination later enabled them to build a life in the United States, providing me a foundation of inspiration from their perseverance, adaptability, and self-discipline.

I draw inspiration from visionaries like Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie, who reimagined entire industries with their ideas, and I carry their ethos into my work: think beyond the obvious, work with determination, and remain humble in the process. Outside of work, I’m passionate about cooking, fatherhood, and exploring my lifelong fascination with technology. I’m also an avid music producer, inspired by artists like J Dilla and Nujabes, who blended diverse influences into unique creations—a philosophy I carry into everything I do.

As Steve Jobs famously said, "Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you... and you can change it." At XPHERA, that’s exactly what we’re doing—redefining how people navigate and experience the world, one innovation at a time.

Jonathan Kline

Head of GIS Engineering

Ever since I can remember, I've been making things, and starting things in my own way and in whatever way interests me at the time. My heroes are the likes of Adam Savage, and I love spending time with and collaborating with my other maker friends, like JohnGabriel with his creation of Xphera. One of my first public creations that I remember was building a wooden block tower that reached the ceiling of my classroom at Montessori in preschool. It was such a moving piece that one of my classmates asked for an autograph! My next big gig was creating an origami cell phone business in first grade, and after that I was hooked on making things, and sharing them with the world. I went on to make things like a dirt bike track, RC boat, bow and arrows, a metal foundry, custom PCs, various electronics projects, underwater robots, tree houses, 3D printers, a camper van, various software systems, GIS systems, and many more things. I've learned life isn't just about making things, it's about making great things, and I'm currently on a quest to understand at a deep level what that means. What I've learned is that great things are simple. What is the simplest way you can make something before it becomes too simple? That is the solution. To make is to be human, to put a piece of yourself into the world with the beauty of constraint, to understand the world with all of your senses, and to learn what is possible and true.

Xphera represents this concept of human creativity and exploration of the space around us. Creativity and experience can be a function of position in space, and there's always a balance of going and of being. During my adolescence, my father, brother, and I traveled to Antarctica on a research vessel to meet with extreme remoteness. Last year, I spent 9 days in complete silent meditation, living only off of charity. In the first case, my sense of the known vs. unknown was shattered by going to a far away land. In the second case, my sense of everyday experience was shattered by simply paying more attention to my current position. We have much to gain from plotting trajectories to unknown positions, but of also closely studying the space around us. Xphera is dedicated to exploring this in order to improve the fundamentals of navigation from a first principles standpoint.

Rodrigo Souza

Cloud Architect

I’ve traveled through a variety of airports around the world, each with its unique charm and occasional challenges. I’ve navigated major hubs like San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas, and Seattle, as well as international terminals in Panama’s Tocumen Airport and São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport. My journeys have also taken me through several Brazilian airports, including those in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Porto Alegre, where the vibrant atmosphere often contrasts with the chaos of busy terminals. From the sleek terminals in Austin and Oakland to the smaller, more intimate spaces in Tampa, each airport has its own rhythm. While I haven’t had any truly epic lost-in-the-airport stories, I’ve certainly had my moments of confusion—whether it was frantically searching for a gate change in a crowded terminal or trying to navigate through a foreign airport where the signs and language were unfamiliar. Along the way, I’ve discovered that getting a little lost can sometimes be the best way to uncover hidden gems in both airports and cities alike.

Austin Lutterbach

Advisor to Technical Team - Machine Learning & Computer Vision

Mr. Lutterbach likes machine learning, mathematics, metal, Magic the Gathering, literature, German Shepards, and cats. He has enjoyed using his ML expertise to solve logistics problems within the FAA at Cobec Consulting and developing adversarial ML defenses at Booz Allen.

Who We Are

XPHERA is all about helping the explorer explore the sphere we call home—earth. This is where the term XPHERA comes from.

“I love that — you’re actually one of those doers —"

— Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple Inc.