Determining a pair of compliance events

1. A method for determining a pair of compliance events, the method comprising:

scanning a subject by a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) detector to obtain a set of event data;

dividing the set of event data into N sub-sets, wherein N is equal to 2 to a power of K (2^K), K is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and the set of event data includes information of each of a plurality of events;

sorting each of the N sub-sets of event data in a sorting order according to an occurrence time of each event included in the event data;

performing a K stage heapsort on all the sorted N sub-sets of event data according to the occurrence time of each event, and sequentially outputting each event data in the heapsort order;

performing a time compliance determination and a space compliance determination on the sequentially-outputted event data;

determining two events as a pair of compliance events in a case both the time compliance determination and the space compliance determination with respect to the two events are conformed; and

reconstructing a PET image based on the pair of compliance events;

wherein said performing a K stage heapsort on all the sorted N sub-sets of event data according to the occurrence time of each event, and sequentially outputting each event data in the heapsort order comprises:

performing a first comparison on first events in every two sorted sub-sets of event data, and outputting data of one of the first events according to the sorting order as a first stage output;

performing a second comparison on every two of the first stage outputs, and outputting one of the first stage outputs according to the sorting order as a second stage output; and

performing a third comparison on every two of the second stage outputs, and outputting one of the second stage outputs according to the sorting order as a third stage output, until data of each event in the sorted N sub-sets of event data are outputted.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said sorting each of the N sub-sets of event data in a sorting order according to an occurrence time of each event included in the event data comprises:

obtaining a comparison result by performing a pairwise comparison on occurrence times of all events in each sub-set of the event data;

obtaining a comparison accumulated value for each occurrence time in each of the sub-sets of the event data by respectively adding up the comparison results with respect to a same occurrence time; and

determining a sorting position of each event in each sub-set of event data according to the comparison accumulated value for each occurrence time.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein, in a case a first pairwise comparison has been performed on two occurrence times in a first direction and a second pairwise comparison in a contrary direction of the first direction is to be performed on the two occurrence times, a second comparison result of the second pairwise comparison is obtained by converting a first comparison result of the first pairwise comparison.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said performing a time compliance determination on the sequentially-outputted event data comprises:

caching the sequentially-outputted event data; and

outputting data of two events which are located in a same time window as a time compliance pair of events.

5. A device for determining a pair of compliance events, the device comprising:

a processor which invokes machine readable instructions corresponding to a control logic for determining a pair of compliance events stored on a storage medium and executes the machine readable instructions to:

obtain a set of event data from a PET detector, wherein the PET detector is configured to collect the set of event data by scanning a subject;

divide the set of event data into N sub-sets, wherein N is equal to 2 to a power of K (2^K), K is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and the set of event data includes information of each of a plurality of events;

sort each of the N sub-sets of event data in a sorting order according to an occurrence time of each event included in the event data;

perform a K stage heapsort on all the sorted N sub-sets of event data according to the occurrence time of each event, and sequentially output each event data in the heapsort order, wherein K is an integer greater than or equal to 1;

perform a time compliance determination and a space compliance determination on the sequentially-outputted event data;

determine two events as a pair of compliance events in a case both the time compliance determination and the space compliance determination with respect to the two events are conformed; and

reconstruct a PET image based on the pair of compliance events;

wherein said performing a K stage heapsort on all the sorted N sub-sets of event data according to the occurrence time of each event, and sequentially outputting each event data in the heapsort order, said machine readable instructions further cause the processor to:

perform a first comparison on first events in every two sorted sub-sets of event data, and output data of one of the first events according to the sorting order as a first stage output;

perform a second comparison on every two of the first stage outputs, and output one of the first stage outputs according to the sorting order as a second stage output; and

perform a third comparison on every two of the second stage outputs, and output one of the second stage outputs according to the sorting order as a third stage output, until data of each event in the sorted N sub-sets of event data are outputted.

6. The device according to claim 5 , wherein sorting each of the N sub-sets of event data in a sorting order according to a occurrence time of each event included in the event data, said machine readable instructions further cause the processor to:

obtain a comparison result by performing a pairwise comparison on occurrence times of all events in each sub-set of the event data;

obtain a comparison accumulated value for each occurrence time in each of the sub-sets of the event data by respectively adding up the comparison results with respect to a same occurrence time; and

determine a sorting position of each event in each sub-set of event data according to the comparison accumulated value for each occurrence time.

7. The device according to claim 6 , wherein, in a case a first pairwise comparison has been performed on two occurrence times in a first direction and a second pairwise comparison in a contrary direction of the first direction is to be performed on the two occurrence times, a second comparison result of the second pairwise comparison is obtained by converting a first comparison result of the first comparison.

8. The device according to claim 5 , wherein, in a case performing a time compliance determination on the sequentially-outputted event data, said machine readable instructions further cause the processor to:

cache the sequentially-outputted event data, and

output data of two events which are located in a same time window as a time compliance pair of events.