function [newval, strengths] = laserfind(img)

img = img .^ 3;

%zeroth pass: blur image and locate laser
img_blurred = gaussianBlur(img,4);

[maxs, xcoords] = max(img_blurred, [], 2);
figure(1); clf;
plot(xcoords, 1:size(img,1),'r-'); 

%now multiply image by gaussians centered at that x-coord
sigma = 10
x = meshgrid(1:size(img,2),1:size(img,1));

%test = x-repmat(xcoords,[1 size(img,2)]);
%imagesc(test); colorbar;pause;

gaussian = (1./sqrt(2*pi)./sigma).*exp(-(x-repmat(xcoords,[1 size(img,2)])).^2./(2*sigma^2));
%color_img = zeros([size(img) 3]);
%color_img(:,:,3) = (img - min(min(img)))./(max(max(img)) - min(min(img)));
%color_img(:,:,1) = (img - min(min(img)))./(max(max(img)) - min(min(img)));

img = img.*gaussian;
color_img(:,:,2) = gaussian ./ max(max(gaussian));

%imagesc(color_img);

%first pass: find moment of each row

strengths = sum(img,2);
xcoords = sum(img .* x, 2) ./ strengths;
figure(1); clf;
imshow(img);
axis image;
hold on;

%second pass: lowpass results
kernel = gaussian_1d(5, 50);
kernel = kernel / sum(kernel);
size(kernel)

weighted = xcoords .* strengths;
newval = conv2(weighted, kernel', 'same');
newscal = conv2(strengths, kernel', 'same');
newval = newval ./ newscal;
thresh = 0.05 * max(newscal);
newval(find(newscal < thresh)) = NaN;
plot(newval, 1:size(img,1),'g-');