How to get a display of camera without UI elements?

Question

How to remove all UI elements from a camera ? I need to get the minimalistic display of camera as in the second screenshot.

Answer 1

class Scanner: NSObject {
//MARK: - Private Properties
private var captureSession: AVCaptureSession?
private(set) var videoLayer: AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer?

//MARK: - Initialization
override init() {
    super.init()

    captureSession = AVCaptureSession()
    if let captureSession = captureSession {
        let device = AVCaptureDevice.defaultDeviceWithMediaType(AVMediaTypeVideo)
        do {
            let input = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: device)
            captureSession.addInput(input)

            let output = AVCaptureMetadataOutput()
            captureSession.addOutput(output)
        } catch {
            print(error)
            abort()
        }

        videoLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: self.captureSession)
        if let videoLayer = videoLayer {
            videoLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill
        }
    }
}

In your UIViewController you set it up like this:

let scanner = Scanner()
if let videoLayer = scanner.videoLayer {
    videoLayer.frame = self.view.bounds
    self.view.layer.addSublayer(videoLayer)
    scanner.startSession()
}

Answer 2

One way to do it is to use UIImagePickerController, which is probably the easiest way to take a photo with the camera. That class has a showsCameraControls property that you can set to NO if you don't want the usual set of controls. If you do that, though, you'll have to set the cameraOverlayView property to a view that you supply. Normally, that view would contain your own set of camera controls, but you could instead pass in an empty view. You'll want to set up the view so that it responds to the user's gestures, so that they can still take the photo (with a tap, perhaps) or dismiss the camera without taking a photo (you could use a swipe for that).