How do I access the iPhone camera API without the camera interface?

How can I take a picture in my iPhone app without going through the camera interface?

I've read things ab开发者_开发知识库out CameraController. Is that what I should look into, or is there an easier way to just snap a picture with code?

You cant access the camera without the iphone API, however what they have allowed is for you to provide your custom view to be used on top of the camera interface, what you have to do is set the cameraOverlayView property of a UIImagePIckerController, here is the reference, as the solution posted in the comment points out, you might be able to access the camera, but through private frameworks which could hurt your chances of approval to the appstore