Inventing a wireless button pushing device for a taxi driver

[RyanN]

Introduction: I was called by our financial mentor at Team Fusion Saturday night and he told me one of his friends, that runs a taxi around the area, wanted me to make something. I, of course, said sure! I'm always open to a challenge. Anyway, the guy brought his taxi to my house today and I looked at what he needed.

He explained to me, when he gets a dispatch, the touchscreen computer in his taxi will beep, and he has to push the button within 10 seconds in order to take the dispatch. For the audio relay, he is using a simple baby monitor that will go to his house. However, finding a readily available wireless device to push the button for him is a bit more difficult. I already decided the easiest and simplest way to do this is to use a simple servo and an arm to mash the virtual button. Designing the whole mechanism seems like it will be pretty simple, but a bit tough to build. However, the problem I have now is deciding which micro-controller to use and how to wirelessly connect the servo to a button inside his house.

End of Introduction...

All right, so I have a few questions...

What is a cheap and effective way to connect any two micro-controllers to each other. I was looking at some Parallax radios, but they are pretty expensive.

What is a good, cheap micro-controller to use that I know how to program? (PBASIC and C just as good as programming our robots, so not totally fluent)
Also, I need to keep in mind to keep the power requirements down to a minimum. I believe it was a Ford van. I don't know if Ford's have always-on 12V receptacles or not, so I may have to come up with a way to use a battery in it that will have to last at least 12 hours.

So to sum it all up. I need a 2 cheap micro-controllers and radios that are capable of sending a signal to push a virtual button on a touch sceen. One set for inside the house (Transmitter) and one set for the car (Receiver). It all needs to be portable and power efficient. I plan on putting a transistor in to shut off the servo when not being used to cut down on the power a little bit.

I know this is all confusing, but some information or tips would be great.