function utf8to16(str) {
	var out, i, len, c;
	var char2, char3;
	out = "";
	len = str.length;
	i = 0;
	while(i < len) {
		c = str.charCodeAt(i++);
		switch(c >> 4)
		{
				case 0: case 1: case 2: case 3: case 4: case 5: case 6: case 7:
				// 0xxxxxxx
				out += str.charAt(i-1);
			break;
				case 12: case 13:
				// 110x xxxx	 10xx xxxx
				char2 = str.charCodeAt(i++);
				out += String.fromCharCode(((c & 0x1F) << 6) | (char2 & 0x3F));
				break;
			case 14:
				// 1110 xxxx	10xx xxxx	10xx xxxx
				char2 = str.charCodeAt(i++);
				char3 = str.charCodeAt(i++);
				out += String.fromCharCode(((c & 0x0F) << 12) |
				((char2 & 0x3F) << 6) |
				((char3 & 0x3F) << 0));
				break;
		}
	}
	return out;
}