Saving Geotag info with photo on iOS4.1

Question

I am having major issues trying to save a photo to camera roll with geotag info on iOS4.1. I am using following ALAssetsLibrary API:

- (void)writeImageDataToSavedPhotosAlbum:(NSData *)imageData 
                                metadata:(NSDictionary *)metadata 
                         completionBlock:(ALAssetsLibraryWriteImageCompletionBlock)completionBlock

I have the GPS coordinates that i wish to save with the photo as an input. Unfortunately, there is no documentation or sample code that describes how to form the metadata NSDictionary that encapsulates the GPS coordinates. Can somebody post a sample code that is known to work ?

I have also tried using iPhone Exif library to save geo info in imageData rather than using metadata, but unfortunately iPhone Exif library is crashing. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Here is code to copy all available information from a CLLocation object into the proper format for a GPS metadata dictionary:

- (NSDictionary *)getGPSDictionaryForLocation:(CLLocation *)location {
    NSMutableDictionary *gps = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];

    // GPS tag version
    [gps setObject:@"2.2.0.0" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSVersion];

    // Time and date must be provided as strings, not as an NSDate object
    NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [formatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS"];
    [formatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:@"UTC"]];
    [gps setObject:[formatter stringFromDate:location.timestamp] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSTimeStamp];
    [formatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy:MM:dd"];
    [gps setObject:[formatter stringFromDate:location.timestamp] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSDateStamp];
    [formatter release];

    // Latitude
    CGFloat latitude = location.coordinate.latitude;
    if (latitude < 0) {
        latitude = -latitude;
        [gps setObject:@"S" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef];
    } else {
        [gps setObject:@"N" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef];
    }
    [gps setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:latitude] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude];

    // Longitude
    CGFloat longitude = location.coordinate.longitude;
    if (longitude < 0) {
        longitude = -longitude;
        [gps setObject:@"W" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef];
    } else {
        [gps setObject:@"E" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef];
    }
    [gps setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:longitude] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude];

    // Altitude
    CGFloat altitude = location.altitude;
    if (!isnan(altitude)){
        if (altitude < 0) {
            altitude = -altitude;
            [gps setObject:@"1" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitudeRef];
        } else {
            [gps setObject:@"0" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitudeRef];
        }
        [gps setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:altitude] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude];
    }

    // Speed, must be converted from m/s to km/h
    if (location.speed >= 0){
        [gps setObject:@"K" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSSpeedRef];
        [gps setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:location.speed*3.6] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSSpeed];
    }

    // Heading
    if (location.course >= 0){
        [gps setObject:@"T" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSTrackRef];
        [gps setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:location.course] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSTrack];
    }

    return gps;
}

Assign the dictionary returned by this method as the value for the kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary key in the metadata dictionary you pass to writeImageDataToSavedPhotosAlbum:metadata:completionBlock: or CGImageDestinationAddImage().

Answer 2

I used this code and created a NSMutableDictionary to help save geotag and other metadata to an image. Check out my blog post here:

http://blog.codecropper.com/2011/05/adding-metadata-to-ios-images-the-easy-way/

Answer 3

After much searching I found and adapted this

This turns cclocation data into a suitable NSDictionary

 #import <ImageIO/ImageIO.h>

+(NSMutableDictionary *)updateExif:(CLLocation *)currentLocation{


    NSMutableDictionary* locDict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];


    CLLocationDegrees exifLatitude = currentLocation.coordinate.latitude;
    CLLocationDegrees exifLongitude = currentLocation.coordinate.longitude;

    [locDict setObject:currentLocation.timestamp forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSTimeStamp];

    if (exifLatitude <0.0){
        exifLatitude = exifLatitude*(-1);
        [locDict setObject:@"S" forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef];
    }else{
        [locDict setObject:@"N" forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef];
    }
    [locDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:exifLatitude] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude];

    if (exifLongitude <0.0){
        exifLongitude=exifLongitude*(-1);
        [locDict setObject:@"W" forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef];
    }else{
        [locDict setObject:@"E" forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef];
    }
    [locDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:exifLongitude] forKey:(NSString*) kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude];


    return [locDict autorelease];

}

Then I add it to the existing metadata that you get through the camera (which doesn't by default have the gps data)

I get the original metadata like this

-(void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info{  
    [imageMetaData setDictionary:[[info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerMediaMetadata] copy]];
}

then I add the gps dictionary the previous method produces.

[imageMetaData setObject:currentLocation forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary];          

    [library writeImageToSavedPhotosAlbum:[viewImage CGImage] metadata:imageMetaData completionBlock:photoCompblock];   

Answer 4

Here's a handy CLLocation category on gist to do all this for you:

https://gist.github.com/phildow/6043486

Answer 5

Anomie's response in Swift 4.0:

func getGPSDictionaryForLocation(location:CLLocation) -> [String:AnyObject] {

    var gps = [String:AnyObject]()

    var latitude = location.coordinate.latitude

    if(latitude < 0){
        latitude = -latitude
        gps[kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef as String] = "S" as AnyObject

    }else{
        gps[kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef as String] = "N" as AnyObject
    }

    gps[kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude as String] = latitude as AnyObject


    var longitude = location.coordinate.longitude

    if(longitude < 0){
        longitude = -longitude
        gps[kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef as String] = "W" as AnyObject
    }else{
        gps[kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef as String] = "E" as AnyObject
    }

    gps[kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude as String] = longitude as AnyObject

    gps[kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude as String] = location.altitude as AnyObject

    return gps
}