A robotic vacuum cleaner "attacked" a South Korean woman while she slept by attempting to suck up the hair on her head. The woman, a 52-year-old resident of Changwon who has not been named, was awoken by the pain and, unable to extricate herself from the robot, called the fire department for help. She was eventually freed by paramedics, escaping serious injury but losing several strands of hair. It required two paramedics to remove her hair from the machine's nozzle, Korea Biz Wire reported. The incident, which took place on January 3, highlighted the potential risk of this type of accident in South Korea, where sitting and sleeping on the floor is common practice. The vacuum only stopped running more than a minute after initially ingesting the woman's hair. She was still unable to free herself from the vacuum and made a "desperate rescue request" call to 119, South Korea's emergency telephone number. Robotic vacuum cleaners are equipped with sensors allowing them to clean surfaces by detecting dirt while avoiding obstacles such as stairs, people and cables - but not, seemingly, human hair that is still attached.

Too close to home While a person's home is his or her castle, it can also the source of seriously painful and embarrassing accidents that require medical attention. Doctors in Saudi Arabia got quite a shock when they x-rayed a toddler and saw that he had swallowed a metallic SpongeBob SquarePants pendant. Doctors couldn't believe their eyes when they saw this familiar face on the x-ray The item, seen in stunning detail in the image above, was removed from the 16-month-old baby boy's oesophagus without complications. A closer look at the hairball doctors removed Picture: EUROPICS A teen in Kyrgyzstan was rushed to hospital unable to eat and when doctors cut open the 18-year-old's swollen stomach they discovered this giant hairball, which had formed over many years of the girl compulsively eating her own hair and locks she picked up off the floor. Statistically speaking, most British people are more likely to be injured at home than anywhere else. Don't whatever you do, let the kids anywhere near a trampoline, with the device accounting for around half of all domestic sports injuries requiring hospital treatment among children.

Safety experts say children jumping on one with an adult or a crowded trampoline, are the most likely to end in tears and a trip to an A&E unit. Barbequing at home can cause unfortunate accidents, with a quarter of us admitting to cooking with one, that is operating a large open flame, while drunk. Gazebos, wooden furniture and sheds are often accidentally set alight in the warmer months, safety experts say. Tipsy grillers could explain the 2,000 individuals admitted to A&E units each year with barbeque-related injuries. Depending on the damage, it seems some of us nurse our wounds in silence. Around a third of UK adults will feel more than a slight ache or pain as a direct result of bedroom antics, with carpet burns, cricked necks and bruised shoulders among the nation's most common sex injuries. For more stories, like the Telegraph's Facebook page by clicking on the link below:xEmbedShow of hands: Who likes to vacuum? I'm not raising my hand either. That's why robotic vacuum cleaners have been the stuff of slacker dreams ever since iRobot unleashed the first Roomba more than a decade ago.

Home robots have evolved, and I've been testing out a new Roomba competitor called the Neato BotVac Robot Vacuum 85 from Neato Robotics. I like it, though my experience wasn't completely clean. Models start at $479. My test unit cost $599.I was especially curious to try Neato because the Newark, Calif., company says it takes advantage of a proprietary laser scanner and navigation software that's based on the same technology Google uses in its driverless cars. handheld vacuum cleaner electroluxAfter watching Neato plow into a few parked toy trucks in my family room, I'm not sure if I'd ever get into one of those vehicles.karcher vacuum cleaner any goodNever mind that, though. dyson vacuum sale nzThe robot performed admirably as a powerful dirt-and-dust sucker-upper, though some human intervention was required.

At one point it got caught on the fringes of an area rug. During another cleaning cycle, it stopped because of a "clear my path" error message that persisted even after I had cleared the path. Periodically the robot paused in the middle of a job because I needed to clean out its brushes, suggesting, perhaps, that I should vacuum more frequently.You're willing to overlook such things because of the advantages, beyond preserving your lazy streak. The robot can crawl under tables, couches, chairs and beds that are out of reach of a standard upright. Scary statistic reported by Neato: Almost 40% of people said it had been three months to a year since they last vacuumed under the bed.The D-shaped robot bears a slight resemblance to a bathroom scale — three straight sides and a brush in the front across its full width. It can clean within 0.4 inches of a wall, the company claims,. On top are two buttons, Clean House (to clean entire rooms), Clean Spot (cleaning a smaller area). There's also a small display for messages and for menu options that let you change the clock, schedule cleanings and so on.

Watching Neato is a spectator sport that's especially fun for the kids. It advances, changes course, and pirouettes like legendary NHL superstar Bobby Orr — you sometimes play a guessing game wondering where it will go next. I kept rooting for it to get to a lonely Cheerio on the other side of a room. It eventually did, though Neato does miss a spot here and there.Even at that, Neato does a really neat job on all sorts of surfaces — carpeting, rugs, hardwood floors, kitchen tiles and the stone in front of a fireplace. I was amazed, and frankly a bit terrified, at how much dirt and dust it collected in its 0.7-liter dirt bin. The bin is a breeze to empty. You can swap out accessory brushes.When Neato finishes the task at hand, it attempts to navigate back to its charger base; I love the little wiggle dance it does when it gets there, though it wasn't always successful making its way back. While the robot isn't exactly quiet, I didn't find it any noisier than my regular vacuum cleaner.

After pressing Clean House, Neato takes a moment to consider its bearings and map out a path, using the laser, bumpers and other sensors to scan and navigate a room. You're not meant to pick it up in the middle of a cycle, lest it mess up its route.If an area is less than 15' by 15' the robot starts off by cleaning the boundaries of a room, then tackles the interior with a back and forth straight-line pattern. In a room that's larger than 15' by 15,' the robot creates virtual 15' by 15' rooms and cleans in "segments."Sometimes Neato will move from one room to another, even before it has finished cleaning the room in which it started. You can confine it to a given room by setting down boundary markers included in the package. The robot had trouble climbing a small ledge to get from my living room to my family room but in general showed a remarkable ability to escape situations where I thought it was stuck, even lifting itself when necessary.It takes 12 hours to charge Neato for the first time.