Based on ghost imaging principle, the semiactive laser non-imaging quadrant photoelectric detection could be upgraded to be capable of imaging detection without changing its hardware by utilizing structured light illumination and image reconstruct algorithm. First, the semi-active laser single pixel imaging method was proposed including the time synchronization and spatial coding methods. The time synchronization could be implemented by matching the detection signal and the structured light from the laser designator through setting trigger pattern in the frame header. The speckle coding and binary coding methods were described for spatial coding method. Then, three image reconstruction algorithms including the traditional ghost imaging, differential ghost imaging and normalized ghost imaging methods were compared. Moreover, a 64×64 pixels target image reconstruction was simulated by normalized ghost imaging algorithm after the two coding process. The results showed that the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) increased with the iterations. The PNSR from the binary coding reached to 11.88 dB after 4 096 iterations. Finally, the hardware-in-the-loop simulation method was proposed for the semi-active laser single pixel imaging detection.