# How to determine ALPHA, smoothing constant, of a LPF?

I am implementing a simple LPF in Java.

But I have problems in choosing the value of ALPHA.

public class LowPassFilter {

/*
* Time smoothing constant for low-pass filter 0 ≤ α ≤ 1 ; a smaller value
* basically means more smoothing See:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-pass_filter#Discrete-time_realization
*/
private static final float ALPHA = 0.2f;

private LowPassFilter() {
}

/**
* Filter the given input against the previous values and return a low-pass
* filtered result.
*
* @param input
*            float array to smooth.
* @param prev
*            float array representing the previous values.
* @return float array smoothed with a low-pass filter.
*/
public static float[] filter(float[] input, float[] prev) {

if (input == null || prev == null)
throw new NullPointerException("input and prev float arrays must be non-NULL");
if (input.length != prev.length)
throw new IllegalArgumentException("input and prev must be the same length");

for (int i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
prev[i] = prev[i] + ALPHA * (input[i] - prev[i]);
}

return prev;
}
}


ALPHA is defined to be dT/(dT+RC), where dT is the event delivering rate and RC is the time-constant of LPF.

To find the value of ALPHA, I need to know the values of dT and RC.

My LPF should have a cut-off frequency of 4Hz and the sampling rate is 350Hz. Anybody can help determine the proper ALPHA value?

## migrated from stackoverflow.comJun 3 '13 at 15:42

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

First, calculate RC. We have,

fc = 1/(2*pi*RC)


so

RC = 1/(2*pi*fc)


Now, ALPHA is simply:

ALPHA = dt / ( dt + RC )


where dt is 1/samplerate.

For your values (samplerate=350, fc=4) I got

ALPHA = 0.0670


Caveat: I tried this on a few other values and the shape of the filter was what I expected, but the exact 3dB cutoff frequency was never quite where it should have been. Not sure if this indicates something wrong, or that's just the nature of the beast.