Much research is taking place into CCD sensors implanted into the cornea which can communicate with the nervous system and restore a degree of vision to the eyes (and they are making much progress and have some working examples in the field). However it is very unlikely that this type of technology will be available widely by 2012.
Well for the first time they have recently given sight to the blind in the form of grey fuzzy images that are basically small cameras that feed into the brain and projected back on to glasses that the user has to wear. As is said its still only fuzzy images but the creators think they’ll have a working colour model out in the next year.
Sorry i cant find the link but i remember seeing it on digg.com