A new adaptive method is given in this paper to detect the centroid of images caught by Hartmann-Shack (H-S) wavefront sensor after analyzing the reason of causing error. This method is based on the self-square arithmetic, Otsu arithmetic, light spots template matching and special threshold method in different sub-area. It is more accurate and adaptive than general methods. The experimental results show that more available information of light spots are kept through this way, which improves the accuracy of centroid detection and extends the applicability of H-S wavefront sensor.