2600th

ID Operator file

I learn by building.

I’m Pranshul Chandhok, VP Product & Technology, Interior Company at Square Yards. I’m drawn to ideas that sound interesting but might not quite work yet, and building something is how I find out. I work across AI and real-time 3D and stay hands-on with the software we build.

Handle
2600th
Building
14+ years
Based
Gurugram, India
Pranshul as the 2600th character: glasses, a beard and a long black tech coat with cobalt piping

01 Why 2600th

Two 2600s. One handle.

An Atari 2600 with its woodgrain front, two joysticks and three cartridges, in front of a colour TV

Pick a cartridge

3D models: “Atari 2600” by dark_igorek and “Magnavox 19" CRT TV” by amhyde, both CC BY 4.0, compressed for the web. The TV picture is drawn by this site.

  1. Early on

    The first 2600 was a console.

    I was into computers and gaming from an early age. The first console we owned was an Atari 2600.

  2. 2007–2011

    The second was a tone.

    In college I got interested in hacking and its history. A documentary walked through the phone phreaks: the Cap’n Crunch whistle that happened to play 2600 Hz, the tone long-distance trunks used to mean “line idle”, the blue boxes that spoke the network’s own routing tones, and Kevin Mitnick, who got much of his access by persuading people rather than breaking code.

  3. The handle

    The handle stuck.

    I took 2600th as my handle in college and kept it. It carries both: the console we grew up with and the tone that once ran the phone network. The instinct behind it stayed too: learn how a system actually works, people included, then make it do something new. Today the systems are rendering engines, design tools and AI models. The homepage tells it with sound.

02 Call log

How I got here.

  1. 2012–14

    Game development

    Starting with games.

    I started as a game programmer. Working on mobile games taught me to care about how software feels: the controls, the feedback, and whether it runs well on the device someone actually owns. Later, at Merkur, I worked on cross-platform Unity development.

    The Brutal Spy Alphaman Merkur Magie

  2. 2015–21

    Co-founder and CTO

    Building GreyKernel.

    I co-founded GreyKernel in 2015 and led its technology work for six years. We built immersive learning systems and games, helped set up JPMorgan Chase’s Mumbai immersive lab, and developed training software for Anglian Water. I also learned how much of a founder’s work happens outside the code.

    GreyKernel Enterprise XR MysticMojo + Nazara

  3. 2021–now

    Product and technology

    Working on design software.

    At HomeLane, I worked on SpaceCraft Pro as principal software architect. Today I lead product and technology work on Blocks with our product, engineering and design teams. Designesto focuses on visual exploration and revision, with deeper costing and execution integration still on the roadmap. I also built the initial PropVR AI MVP that PropVR’s team developed into Craft. Outside work, I keep experimenting with browser graphics, games and local AI.

    SpaceCraft Pro Blocks Designesto PropVR AI → Craft

03 Toolchain

Tools in use.

A beige 1990s desktop computer with a monitor, keyboard, mouse and four floppy disks
3D model: “PSX Retro Computer” by Tomitos, CC BY 4.0, compressed for the web. The screen is drawn by this site.
Game engines
Unity for cross-platform games at Merkur and for the enterprise XR training and simulation work at GreyKernel.
Browser graphics
TypeScript, Three.js and WebGPU in Web Ocean 3D, with KTX2 textures keeping its download in budget. Rapier supports physics in Kinema.
Applied AI
OpenAI and Gemini for floorplan interpretation, with ComfyUI for repeatable image and video experiments.
Product prototypes
Next.js, Tailwind CSS, AI SDK and fal.ai formed part of the initial PropVR AI MVP I built for the team to extend.

04 Patent

Humanoid Robot Control System

At GreyKernel, I co-invented a system for controlling a humanoid robot using tracked human movement. Indian Patent No. 395331 was filed on 14 February 2019 and granted on 25 April 2022.

My co-inventors are Abhishek Gupta, Devesh Kumar Singh, and Tej Pratap Singh. GreyKernel Technologies India Pvt Ltd holds the patent.

Read about the robot control system ↗

05 Operating rules

How I work.

My work moves between product direction, technical architecture, prototypes and implementation. Sometimes I’m building the first version; sometimes I’m helping a team decide how the system should work and carry it into production. Each Work page describes my role and the people who took it forward. The Lab is where I try an idea on my own, inspect the result and share the code.

  1. Try the idea.I often build a small prototype to answer a question. It gives the team something concrete to discuss.
  2. Stay close to implementation.I test tools and read the code before recommending them. Their limits matter as much as their capabilities.
  3. Pay attention when it breaks.Slow responses, memory limits, and confusing controls tell me where more work is needed.
  4. Use AI where it helps.Sometimes a deterministic rule or a database query is the better choice. Some decisions still need a person.
Side BFlip the tape →

Side A was the work. Side B is the music: two tapes of Linkin Park, one of rock classics, and the line’s own tones, in a Walkman.