The name says it all.
I am using MiniExiftool, a ruby interface for Perl Exiftool.
http://miniexiftool.rubyforge.org/
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
Using:
exif = MiniExiftool.new (file_path)
exif.date_time_original = Time.now
exif ["captionextract"] = "This is my new signature"
exif.save
Have you tried exifr ?
ruby-libexif: http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/ruby-libexif/
: http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:yjOeG4UnD38J:tach.arege.net/trac/browser/debian/libexif-ruby/trunk/exif.rd.en%3Frev%3D51%26format%3Draw+ruby+set+exif+tag&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a