Capture Image metadata with JAI

Question

Hi,
Can we capture the metadata of a photograph taken by a digital camera (JPEG file) using the JAI?
Some of the features that I'm interested in capturing are: Data Picture Taken, Camera Model and so on.
Any sample snippet of code is highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bhaskar

Answer 1

Should have searched the forum throughly....this is the code which was given by Mr. Maxideon [http://forums.sun.com/profile.jspa?userID=1078315] -- All credits to him -- although this post is very old, probably would be helpful for someone else :)
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.imageio.*;
import javax.imageio.metadata.*;
import javax.imageio.stream.ImageInputStream;
import javax.imageio.stream.MemoryCacheImageInputStream;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
public class ExifSSCCE {
    private static String JPEGMetaFormat = "javax_imageio_jpeg_image_1.0";
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try{
                    runSequence();
                }catch(Exception e) {
                   e.printStackTrace();
                   System.exit(-1);
    private static void showMessageAndExit(String message) {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,message,"Error",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
        System.exit(0);
    public static void runSequence() throws java.io.IOException{
        if(!ImageIO.getImageReadersByFormatName("tif").hasNext()) {
            showMessageAndExit("You will need a tiff ImageReader plugin to " +
                    "parse exif data.  Please download \"JAI-ImageIO\".");
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Please select a jpeg file with " +
                "EXIF metadata");
        JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
        if(chooser.showOpenDialog(chooser) == JFileChooser.CANCEL_OPTION) {
            System.exit(0);
        java.io.File toOpen = chooser.getSelectedFile();
        ImageInputStream in = ImageIO.createImageInputStream(toOpen);
        java.util.Iterator<ImageReader> readers = ImageIO.getImageReaders(in);
        if(!readers.hasNext()) {
            showMessageAndExit("The selected file was not an image file, or " +
                    "not a type that ImageIO recognized.");
        ImageReader reader = null;
        while(readers.hasNext()) {
            ImageReader tmp = readers.next();
            if(JPEGMetaFormat.equals(tmp.getOriginatingProvider().getNativeImageMetadataFormatName())) {
                reader = tmp;
                break;
        if(reader == null) {
            showMessageAndExit("The selected file was not a jpeg file.");
        reader.setInput(in, true, false);
        byte[] exifRAW = getEXIF(reader.getImageMetadata(0));
        if(exifRAW == null) {
            showMessageAndExit("The selected jpeg file did not contain any " +
                    "exif data.");
        reader.dispose();
        in.close();
        IIOMetadata exifMeta = getTiffMetaFromEXIF(exifRAW);
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setContentPane(new JScrollPane(parseExifMeta(exifMeta)));
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    private static JTable parseExifMeta(IIOMetadata exifMeta) {
        //Specification of "com_sun_media_imageio_plugins_tiff_image_1.0"
        //http://download.java.net/media/jai-imageio/javadoc/1.1/com/sun/media/imageio/plugins/tiff/package-summary.html
        javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel tags =
                new javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel();
        tags.addColumn("Tag #");
        tags.addColumn("Name");
        tags.addColumn("Value(s)");
        IIOMetadataNode root = (IIOMetadataNode)
                exifMeta.getAsTree("com_sun_media_imageio_plugins_tiff_image_1.0");
        NodeList imageDirectories = root.getElementsByTagName("TIFFIFD");
        for(int i = 0; i < imageDirectories.getLength(); i++) {
            IIOMetadataNode directory = (IIOMetadataNode) imageDirectories.item(i);
            NodeList tiffTags = directory.getElementsByTagName("TIFFField");
            for(int j = 0; j < tiffTags.getLength(); j++) {
                IIOMetadataNode tag = (IIOMetadataNode) tiffTags.item(j);
                String tagNumber = tag.getAttribute("number");
                String tagName   = tag.getAttribute("name");
                String tagValue;
                StringBuilder tmp = new StringBuilder();
                IIOMetadataNode values = (IIOMetadataNode) tag.getFirstChild();
                if("TIFFUndefined".equals(values.getNodeName())) {
                    tmp.append(values.getAttribute("value"));
                }else {
                    NodeList tiffNumbers = values.getChildNodes();
                    for(int k = 0; k < tiffNumbers.getLength(); k++) {
                        tmp.append(((IIOMetadataNode) tiffNumbers.item(k)).getAttribute("value"));
                        tmp.append(",");
                    tmp.deleteCharAt(tmp.length()-1);
                tagValue = tmp.toString();
                tags.addRow(new String[]{tagNumber,tagName,tagValue});
        return new JTable(tags);
    /**Returns the EXIF information from the given metadata if present.  The
     * metadata is assumed to be in <pre>javax_imageio_jpeg_image_1.0</pre> format.
     * If EXIF information was not present then null is returned.*/
    public static byte[] getEXIF(IIOMetadata meta) {
        //http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/imageio/metadata/doc-files/jpeg_metadata.html
        //javax_imageio_jpeg_image_1.0
        //-->markerSequence
        //---->unknown (attribute: "MarkerTag" val: 225 (for exif))
        IIOMetadataNode root = (IIOMetadataNode) meta.getAsTree(JPEGMetaFormat);
        IIOMetadataNode markerSeq = (IIOMetadataNode)
                root.getElementsByTagName("markerSequence").item(0);
        NodeList unkowns = markerSeq.getElementsByTagName("unknown");
        for(int i = 0; i < unkowns.getLength(); i++) {
            IIOMetadataNode marker = (IIOMetadataNode) unkowns.item(i);
            if("225".equals(marker.getAttribute("MarkerTag"))) {
                return (byte[]) marker.getUserObject();
        return null;
    /**Uses a TIFFImageReader plugin to parse the given exif data into tiff
     * tags.  The returned IIOMetadata is in whatever format the tiff ImageIO
     * plugin uses.  If there is no tiff plugin, then this method returns null.*/
    public static IIOMetadata getTiffMetaFromEXIF(byte[] exif) {
        java.util.Iterator<ImageReader> readers =
                ImageIO.getImageReadersByFormatName("tif");
        ImageReader reader;
        if(!readers.hasNext()) {
            return null;
        }else {
            reader = readers.next();
        //skip the 6 byte exif header
        ImageInputStream wrapper = new MemoryCacheImageInputStream(
                new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(exif,6,exif.length-6));
        reader.setInput(wrapper,true,false);
        IIOMetadata exifMeta;
        try {
            exifMeta = reader.getImageMetadata(0);
        }catch(Exception e) {
            //shouldn't happen
            throw new Error(e);
        reader.dispose();
        return exifMeta;
}Edited by: amitahire on Mar 27, 2010 4:57 AM