PHP extract GPS EXIF data

Question

I would like to extract the GPS EXIF tag from pictures using php. I'm using the exif_read_data() that returns a array of all tags + data :

GPS.GPSLatitudeRef: N
GPS.GPSLatitude:Array ( [0] => 46/1 [1] => 5403/100 [2] => 0/1 ) 
GPS.GPSLongitudeRef: E
GPS.GPSLongitude:Array ( [0] => 7/1 [1] => 880/100 [2] => 0/1 ) 
GPS.GPSAltitudeRef: 
GPS.GPSAltitude: 634/1

I don't know how to interpret 46/1 5403/100 and 0/1 ? 46 might be 46° but what about the rest especially 0/1 ?

angle/1 5403/100 0/1

What is this structure about ?

How to convert them to "standard" ones (like 46°56′48″N 7°26′39″E from wikipedia) ? I would like to pass thoses coordinates to the google maps api to display the pictures positions on a map !

Answer 1

This is my modified version. The other ones didn't work for me. It will give you the decimal versions of the GPS coordinates.

The code to process the EXIF data:

$exif = exif_read_data($filename);
$lon = getGps($exif["GPSLongitude"], $exif['GPSLongitudeRef']);
$lat = getGps($exif["GPSLatitude"], $exif['GPSLatitudeRef']);
var_dump($lat, $lon);

Prints out in this format:

float(-33.8751666667)
float(151.207166667)

Here are the functions:

function getGps($exifCoord, $hemi) {

    $degrees = count($exifCoord) > 0 ? gps2Num($exifCoord[0]) : 0;
    $minutes = count($exifCoord) > 1 ? gps2Num($exifCoord[1]) : 0;
    $seconds = count($exifCoord) > 2 ? gps2Num($exifCoord[2]) : 0;

    $flip = ($hemi == 'W' or $hemi == 'S') ? -1 : 1;

    return $flip * ($degrees + $minutes / 60 + $seconds / 3600);

}

function gps2Num($coordPart) {

    $parts = explode('/', $coordPart);

    if (count($parts) <= 0)
        return 0;

    if (count($parts) == 1)
        return $parts[0];

    return floatval($parts[0]) / floatval($parts[1]);
}

Answer 2

This is a refactored version of Gerald Kaszuba's code (currently the most widely accepted answer). The result should be identical, but I've made several micro-optimizations and combined the two separate functions into one. In my benchmark testing, this version shaved about 5 microseconds off the runtime, which is probably negligible for most applications, but might be useful for applications which involve a large number of repeated calculations.

$exif = exif_read_data($filename);
$latitude = gps($exif["GPSLatitude"], $exif['GPSLatitudeRef']);
$longitude = gps($exif["GPSLongitude"], $exif['GPSLongitudeRef']);

function gps($coordinate, $hemisphere) {
  if (is_string($coordinate)) {
    $coordinate = array_map("trim", explode(",", $coordinate));
  }
  for ($i = 0; $i < 3; $i++) {
    $part = explode('/', $coordinate[$i]);
    if (count($part) == 1) {
      $coordinate[$i] = $part[0];
    } else if (count($part) == 2) {
      $coordinate[$i] = floatval($part[0])/floatval($part[1]);
    } else {
      $coordinate[$i] = 0;
    }
  }
  list($degrees, $minutes, $seconds) = $coordinate;
  $sign = ($hemisphere == 'W' || $hemisphere == 'S') ? -1 : 1;
  return $sign * ($degrees + $minutes/60 + $seconds/3600);
}

Answer 3

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging, ( [0] => 46/1 [1] => 5403/100 [2] => 0/1 ) should mean 46/1 degrees, 5403/100 minutes, 0/1 seconds, i.e. 46°54.03′0″N. Normalizing the seconds gives 46°54′1.8″N.

This code below should work, as long as you don't get negative coordinates (given that you get N/S and E/W as a separate coordinate, you shouldn't ever have negative coordinates). Let me know if there is a bug (I don't have a PHP environment handy at the moment).

//Pass in GPS.GPSLatitude or GPS.GPSLongitude or something in that format
function getGps($exifCoord)
{
  $degrees = count($exifCoord) > 0 ? gps2Num($exifCoord[0]) : 0;
  $minutes = count($exifCoord) > 1 ? gps2Num($exifCoord[1]) : 0;
  $seconds = count($exifCoord) > 2 ? gps2Num($exifCoord[2]) : 0;

  //normalize
  $minutes += 60 * ($degrees - floor($degrees));
  $degrees = floor($degrees);

  $seconds += 60 * ($minutes - floor($minutes));
  $minutes = floor($minutes);

  //extra normalization, probably not necessary unless you get weird data
  if($seconds >= 60)
  {
    $minutes += floor($seconds/60.0);
    $seconds -= 60*floor($seconds/60.0);
  }

  if($minutes >= 60)
  {
    $degrees += floor($minutes/60.0);
    $minutes -= 60*floor($minutes/60.0);
  }

  return array('degrees' => $degrees, 'minutes' => $minutes, 'seconds' => $seconds);
}

function gps2Num($coordPart)
{
  $parts = explode('/', $coordPart);

  if(count($parts) <= 0)// jic
    return 0;
  if(count($parts) == 1)
    return $parts[0];

  return floatval($parts[0]) / floatval($parts[1]);
}

Answer 4

I know this question has been asked a long time ago, but I came across it while searching in google and the solutions proposed here did not worked for me. So, after further searching, here is what worked for me.

I'm putting it here so that anybody who comes here through some googling, can find different approaches to solve the same problem:

function triphoto_getGPS($fileName, $assoc = false)
{
    //get the EXIF
    $exif = exif_read_data($fileName);

    //get the Hemisphere multiplier
    $LatM = 1; $LongM = 1;
    if($exif["GPSLatitudeRef"] == 'S')
    {
    $LatM = -1;
    }
    if($exif["GPSLongitudeRef"] == 'W')
    {
    $LongM = -1;
    }

    //get the GPS data
    $gps['LatDegree']=$exif["GPSLatitude"][0];
    $gps['LatMinute']=$exif["GPSLatitude"][1];
    $gps['LatgSeconds']=$exif["GPSLatitude"][2];
    $gps['LongDegree']=$exif["GPSLongitude"][0];
    $gps['LongMinute']=$exif["GPSLongitude"][1];
    $gps['LongSeconds']=$exif["GPSLongitude"][2];

    //convert strings to numbers
    foreach($gps as $key => $value)
    {
    $pos = strpos($value, '/');
    if($pos !== false)
    {
        $temp = explode('/',$value);
        $gps[$key] = $temp[0] / $temp[1];
    }
    }

    //calculate the decimal degree
    $result['latitude'] = $LatM * ($gps['LatDegree'] + ($gps['LatMinute'] / 60) + ($gps['LatgSeconds'] / 3600));
    $result['longitude'] = $LongM * ($gps['LongDegree'] + ($gps['LongMinute'] / 60) + ($gps['LongSeconds'] / 3600));

    if($assoc)
    {
    return $result;
    }

    return json_encode($result);
}