From the Sun

When you need a beer and you just can't muster up the energy to get off the couch...it's Ryan Rusnak to the rescue!  He's got an iphone app controlled robot to get the job done. 

The inventor of an iPhone-controlled fridge which shoots cans of beer across a room from a CANNON has been hailed as the creator of the 'greatest ever bloke's toy'.

Ryan Rusnak, 25, created the 'Beer Bot' after deciding to make his own beer vending machine — meaning he never has to leave his seat again when he fancies a cold beverage.

The first version of his robo beer butler was a basic vending machine which dropped chilled beers from the fridge into a tray below.

But Ryan, from Tyson's Corner, Virginia, US, wasn't satisfied with a simple beer vendor, and after talking with co-creator Graham Phero, decided to add a compressed air cannon.

Ryan said: "My buddy Graham said, 'how can we throw the beers to us?'

"What about an arm or a cannon?"

The friends settled on an air-powered cannon, which led to a lot of experimenting with different air pressures.

Ryan said: "It was kind of famous last words: 'how much pressure should we use?'

"The first attempt smashed the can into the roof, and blew it into a thousand pieces."

Users log into the fridge via a dedicated web server, using an app developed by Ryan's friend Josh Lilly.

They choose from a selection of beers, before using a webcam installed in the front of the perspex-panelled fridge to aim the cannon and send a cold can of beer hurtling across the room towards them

The fridge even has its own social network profiles, tweeting whenever a beer is fired and sending a notification e-mail to its creator.

Ryan said: "All the tinkering and everything took about three months to get it absolutely right."

He added that, after the trial and error of creating the original £250 device, making 'Beer Bot' Mark II would be a much quicker affair.

He said: "Knowing what I know now I could probably build one in a weekend.

"I'd also make it smaller, more efficient and cheaper, I could do it for about £190."

The key component of the fridge is an iobridge micro-controller — a device which allows the fridge to link to Ryan's iPhone via the web.

Government tech consultant Ryan, a Virginia Tech University graduate, has received so much attention since posting videos of the Beer Bot online that the CEO of the micro-controller company took him out to lunch.

He said: "It's been crazy. I've had tons of people calling me asking to use the videos on news programmes."

He said that he plans to celebrate the popularity of the fridge by throwing a party and allowing web users to log into the fridge.

Ryan said: "The cool part of the micro controller is that, in theory, anyone could log in and control the fridge.

"Our next big idea is throwing a party, people could log in and throw cans of beer at us."

He added that, currently, the server is password-protected, and he only turns the cannon on when he wants to use it himself.

"It really is the ultimate boys' toy."