In what's perhaps a worrying premonition of the future, a robotic hoover has attempted to swallow the hair of its owner while she was sleeping.

The South Korean woman was napping on the floor of her apartment in the city of Changwon when he was awoken by the pain of the hoover entangling itself in her hair.

Unable to free herself from its grip, she called emergency services, with paramedics arriving later to help.

The hoover, which is programmed to patrol the floor of a house and suck up dust apparently became confused by the woman and mistook her for some sort of dirt pile.

In Korea, resting on the floor is quite common, and KoreaBizWire suspects that it may not be the last clash between robo-hoovers and countries with a 'sitting-on-the-floor' culture.