  We show that soliton interaction with finite-width inhomogeneities can
activate a great number of soliton internal modes. We obtain the exact
stationary soliton solution in the presence of inhomogeneities and solve
exactly the stability problem. We present a Karhunen-Loeve analysis of the
soliton structure dynamics as a time-dependent force pumps energy into the
traslational mode of the kink. We show the importance of the internal modes of
the soliton as they can generate shape chaos for the soliton as well as cases
in which the first shape mode leads the dynamics.
