Treat Dispenser with a twist

Hi!

I've been researching the different methods out there for creating a puppy treat dispenser. I've seen a handful of these designed in a number of ways - and that's good news for me because it gives me a starting ground. The twist I am looking to add that I have not found yet:

I want to set up an iPad/tablet by the pen, with a treat dispenser beside it. Create a website where people can go and can turn on their webcam, to appear on the iPad, so they can interact with my Puppy, and they can press a button on the site, that will dispense a treat for the puppy. There will be a variable timer for how often the puppy can get a treat/how long each user can be on the webcam with him (it would have to form a 'queue' if more than 1 person wants to do it).

So far I've found a few resources that I will be doing my research with in greater detail, and to be honest I'm not certain exactly what I need, but these are the things that have come up on my research thus far:

  • Naturally, Aduino board
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Cayenne

Now. I am by no means proficient with hardware OR software development. I have basic proficiency with a number of programming languages, but don't excel at any. I have some iOS development experience, some back-end Ruby training, some C++.

Any useful resources, links, comments to send me down the right path - words of encouragement as to the feasibility/ease of such a project, etc., is all greatly appreciated.

Some notes:

The construction of the web page and its interaction with the dispenser is up to you, it's not an Arduino issue. The time dependent part IMO should be implemented on the tablet, which finally sends a command to dispense a treat.

The mechanical construction of the dispenser also is up to you. The code for it will be simple, but depends on the used actuator(s).

How do you want to connect the dispenser to the tablet? Bluetooth? USB?