QT GUI freezes when capturing video from webcam using OpenCV

I am using Opencv for some real-time video processing.

As a front-end I am using QT framework.

On my GUI, I have an input image window (mapped to a Label) and an output image window (mapped to another Label) and 3 push buttons. One to Start input video capture, the second to process the video (code not written yet), and third to Exit.

I am currently able to stream my video and display it on the Front-end. But this locks my GUI and am unable to Exit.

I tried using QTimers (using suggestions from this and the QT forum), but my GUI still remains locked.

Would appreciate if someone can point my in the right direction.

Below is the code:

mainwindow.h

#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H

#include <QMainWindow>
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>
#include <opencv2/core/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/imgproc/imgproc.hpp>   // for cvtColor
#include <iostream>
#include <QTimer>

namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}

class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
    Q_OBJECT

public:
    explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
    ~MainWindow();

private slots:
    void on_buttonCaptureVideo_clicked();

    void on_buttonExit_clicked();

public slots:
    virtual void doNextFrame() {repaint();}

private:
    Ui::MainWindow *ui;
    CvCapture *capture;          // OpenCV Video Capture Variable
    IplImage *frame;            // Variable to capture a frame of the input video
    cv::Mat source_image;     // Variable pointing to the same input frame
    cv::Mat dest_image;      // Variable to output a frame of the processed video
    QTimer *imageTimer;
};

#endif // MAINWINDOW_H

mainwindow.cpp

#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
    QMainWindow(parent),
    ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
    ui->setupUi(this);
}

MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
    delete ui;
    cvReleaseImage(&frame);
    cvReleaseCapture(&capture);
}

void MainWindow::on_buttonCaptureVideo_clicked()
{
    // Set to 25 frames per second

    const int imagePeriod = 1000/25;   // ms

    imageTimer = new QTimer(this);

    imageTimer->setInterval(imagePeriod);

    connect(imageTimer, SIGNAL(timeout()), this, SLOT(doNextFrame()));

    // Use the default camera
    capture = cvCreateCameraCapture(-1);

    while(capture)
    {
    // Capture a frame
    frame = cvQueryFrame(capture);

    // Point to the same frame
    source_image = frame;

    // Resize Image
    cv::resize(source_image, source_image, cv::Size(128,128) , 0, 0);

    // Change to RGB format
    cv::cvtColor(source_image,source_image,CV_BGR2RGB);

    // Convert to QImage
    QImage qimg = QImage((const unsigned char*) source_image.data, source_image.cols, source_image.rows, QImage::Format_RGB888); // convert to QImage

    // Display on Input Label
    ui->labelInputVideo->setPixmap(QPixmap::fromImage(qimg));

    // Resize the label to fit the image
    ui->labelInputVideo->resize(ui->labelInputVideo->pixmap()->size());

    }
}

void MainWindow::on_buttonExit_clicked()
{

    connect(ui->buttonExit, SIGNAL(clicked()), qApp, SLOT(closeAllWindows()));
}