While we recommend the use of rich, structured metadata for the management of digital image libraries, the detail of the techniques described in this note should be considered experimental and not necessarily best practice. The latest revision of this document includes a minor update to the RDF representation in example1.rdf, along with some additional 'further reading' references. The previous emphasis on PNG images has been reduced since a similar technique can be used with JPEG and other image formats. The RDF diagrammatic visualisation has also been updated. A future revision might address further the advanced modelling issues raised in the final section, alongside a resurrected online demonstration.
Feedback is welcomed.
The value of having a widely agreed convention for the storage of RDF metadata within image files should be evident from this PNG-based case study. The best way to introduce the notion of a 'self describing' image is to show one. Here is a simple GIF image of a lion, containing no metadata. The latter image contains a set of machine-processable statements about the image content. These can be extracted and used for building rich indexes and catalogues for image retrieval.