Method of estimating irregular wear of tires by recording an amount of wear of painted portions of the tire as image information at multiple regular time intervals

A method of estimating irregular wear of pneumatic tires, in which a deformable paint is coated on the tire tread surface in a regular manner. The wearing degree of the paint is recorded as a plurality of image information at regular time intervals, while running the tire under a loaded condition. A predetermined portion of the respective image information is divided into a number of pixels. Weights are applied to the respective pixels corresponding to painted potions, respectively, such that each weight is inversely proportional to the duration of time during which the paint has been worn. Wear information for the painted portion is converted into a wide range wear information which also covers the respective pixels for the non-painted portion, by calculating the wear level values of the respective pixels including the non-painted portion in view of the weight of the pixels and weights of the periphery pixels. The wear level values are mapped and the mapped information is used to estimate irregular wear occurring state on the tread surface.