diff --git a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/__init__.py b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/__init__.py
index 780f343d1..1327962e3 100644
--- a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/__init__.py
+++ b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/__init__.py
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@
 from .one_hot_task_config import OneHotTaskConfig, OneHotTask  # noqa
 from .pretrained_task_config import PretrainedTaskConfig, PretrainedTask  # noqa
 from .affinities_task_config import AffinitiesTaskConfig, AffinitiesTask  # noqa
+from .hot_distance_task_config import HotDistanceTaskConfig, HotDistanceTask  # noqa
diff --git a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/hot_distance_task.py b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/hot_distance_task.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ef0d03229
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/hot_distance_task.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+from .evaluators import BinarySegmentationEvaluator
+from .losses import HotDistanceLoss
+from .post_processors import ThresholdPostProcessor
+from .predictors import HotDistancePredictor
+from .task import Task
+
+
+class HotDistanceTask(Task):
+    """This is just a Hot Distance Task that combine Binary and distance prediction."""
+
+    def __init__(self, task_config):
+        """Create a `HotDistanceTask` from a `HotDistanceTaskConfig`."""
+
+        self.predictor = HotDistancePredictor(
+            channels=task_config.channels,
+            scale_factor=task_config.scale_factor,
+            mask_distances=task_config.mask_distances,
+        )
+        self.loss = HotDistanceLoss()
+        self.post_processor = ThresholdPostProcessor()
+        self.evaluator = BinarySegmentationEvaluator(
+            clip_distance=task_config.clip_distance,
+            tol_distance=task_config.tol_distance,
+            channels=task_config.channels,
+        )
diff --git a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/hot_distance_task_config.py b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/hot_distance_task_config.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..559d283de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/hot_distance_task_config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+import attr
+
+from .hot_distance_task import HotDistanceTask
+from .task_config import TaskConfig
+
+from typing import List
+
+
+@attr.s
+class HotDistanceTaskConfig(TaskConfig):
+    """This is a Hot Distance task config used for generating and
+    evaluating signed distance transforms as a way of generating
+    segmentations.
+
+    The advantage of generating distance transforms over regular
+    affinities is you can get a denser signal, i.e. 1 misclassified
+    pixel in an affinity prediction could merge 2 otherwise very
+    distinct objects, this cannot happen with distances.
+    """
+
+    task_type = HotDistanceTask
+
+    channels: List[str] = attr.ib(metadata={"help_text": "A list of channel names."})
+    clip_distance: float = attr.ib(
+        metadata={
+            "help_text": "Maximum distance to consider for false positive/negatives."
+        },
+    )
+    tol_distance: float = attr.ib(
+        metadata={
+            "help_text": "Tolerance distance for counting false positives/negatives"
+        },
+    )
+    scale_factor: float = attr.ib(
+        default=1,
+        metadata={
+            "help_text": "The amount by which to scale distances before applying "
+            "a tanh normalization."
+        },
+    )
+    mask_distances: bool = attr.ib(
+        default=False,
+        metadata={
+            "help_text": "Whether or not to mask out regions where the true distance to "
+            "object boundary cannot be known. This is anywhere that the distance to crop boundary "
+            "is less than the distance to object boundary."
+        },
+    )
diff --git a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/losses/__init__.py b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/losses/__init__.py
index b675faa96..f1db3586b 100644
--- a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/losses/__init__.py
+++ b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/losses/__init__.py
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
 from .mse_loss import MSELoss  # noqa
 from .loss import Loss  # noqa
 from .affinities_loss import AffinitiesLoss  # noqa
+from .hot_distance_loss import HotDistanceLoss  # noqa
diff --git a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/losses/hot_distance_loss.py b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/losses/hot_distance_loss.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..784176bd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/losses/hot_distance_loss.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+from .loss import Loss
+import torch
+
+
+# HotDistance is used for predicting hot and distance maps at the same time.
+# The first half of the channels are the hot maps, the second half are the distance maps.
+# The loss is the sum of the BCELoss for the hot maps and the MSELoss for the distance maps.
+# Model should predict twice the number of channels as the target.
+class HotDistanceLoss(Loss):
+    def compute(self, prediction, target, weight):
+        target_hot, target_distance = self.split(target)
+        prediction_hot, prediction_distance = self.split(prediction)
+        weight_hot, weight_distance = self.split(weight)
+        return self.hot_loss(
+            prediction_hot, target_hot, weight_hot
+        ) + self.distance_loss(prediction_distance, target_distance, weight_distance)
+
+    def hot_loss(self, prediction, target, weight):
+        loss = torch.nn.BCEWithLogitsLoss(reduction="none")
+        return torch.mean(loss(prediction, target) * weight)
+
+    def distance_loss(self, prediction, target, weight):
+        loss = torch.nn.MSELoss()
+        return loss(prediction * weight, target * weight)
+
+    def split(self, x):
+        # Shape[0] is the batch size and Shape[1] is the number of channels.
+        assert (
+            x.shape[1] % 2 == 0
+        ), f"First dimension (Channels) of target {x.shape} must be even to be splitted in hot and distance."
+        mid = x.shape[1] // 2
+        return torch.split(x, mid, dim=1)
diff --git a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/predictors/__init__.py b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/predictors/__init__.py
index 76f82138d..3fe61ae03 100644
--- a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/predictors/__init__.py
+++ b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/predictors/__init__.py
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@
 from .one_hot_predictor import OneHotPredictor  # noqa
 from .predictor import Predictor  # noqa
 from .affinities_predictor import AffinitiesPredictor  # noqa
+from .hot_distance_predictor import HotDistancePredictor  # noqa
diff --git a/dacapo/experiments/tasks/predictors/hot_distance_predictor.py b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/predictors/hot_distance_predictor.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..96a100c92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dacapo/experiments/tasks/predictors/hot_distance_predictor.py
@@ -0,0 +1,284 @@
+from dacapo.experiments.arraytypes.probabilities import ProbabilityArray
+from .predictor import Predictor
+from dacapo.experiments import Model
+from dacapo.experiments.arraytypes import DistanceArray
+from dacapo.experiments.datasplits.datasets.arrays import NumpyArray
+from dacapo.utils.balance_weights import balance_weights
+
+from funlib.geometry import Coordinate
+
+from scipy.ndimage.morphology import distance_transform_edt
+import numpy as np
+import torch
+
+import logging
+from typing import List
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class HotDistancePredictor(Predictor):
+    """
+    Predict signed distances and one hot embedding (as a proxy task) for a binary segmentation task.
+    Distances deep within background are pushed to -inf, distances deep within
+    the foreground object are pushed to inf. After distances have been
+    calculated they are passed through a tanh so that distances saturate at +-1.
+    Multiple classes can be predicted via multiple distance channels. The names
+    of each class that is being segmented can be passed in as a list of strings
+    in the channels argument.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, channels: List[str], scale_factor: float, mask_distances: bool):
+        self.channels = (
+            channels * 2
+        )  # one hot + distance (TODO: add hot/distance to channel names)
+        self.norm = "tanh"
+        self.dt_scale_factor = scale_factor
+        self.mask_distances = mask_distances
+
+        self.max_distance = 1 * scale_factor
+        self.epsilon = 5e-2  # TODO: should be a config parameter
+        self.threshold = 0.8  # TODO: should be a config parameter
+
+    @property
+    def embedding_dims(self):
+        return len(self.channels)
+
+    @property
+    def classes(self):
+        return len(self.channels) // 2
+
+    def create_model(self, architecture):
+        if architecture.dims == 2:
+            head = torch.nn.Conv2d(
+                architecture.num_out_channels, self.embedding_dims, kernel_size=3
+            )
+        elif architecture.dims == 3:
+            head = torch.nn.Conv3d(
+                architecture.num_out_channels, self.embedding_dims, kernel_size=3
+            )
+
+        return Model(architecture, head)
+
+    def create_target(self, gt):
+        target = self.process(gt.data, gt.voxel_size, self.norm, self.dt_scale_factor)
+        return NumpyArray.from_np_array(
+            target,
+            gt.roi,
+            gt.voxel_size,
+            gt.axes,
+        )
+
+    def create_weight(self, gt, target, mask, moving_class_counts=None):
+        # balance weights independently for each channel
+        one_hot_weights, one_hot_moving_class_counts = balance_weights(
+            gt[target.roi],
+            2,
+            slab=tuple(1 if c == "c" else -1 for c in gt.axes),
+            masks=[mask[target.roi]],
+            moving_counts=None
+            if moving_class_counts is None
+            else moving_class_counts[: self.classes],
+        )
+
+        if self.mask_distances:
+            distance_mask = self.create_distance_mask(
+                target[target.roi][-self.classes :],
+                mask[target.roi],
+                target.voxel_size,
+                self.norm,
+                self.dt_scale_factor,
+            )
+        else:
+            distance_mask = np.ones_like(target.data)
+
+        distance_weights, distance_moving_class_counts = balance_weights(
+            gt[target.roi],
+            2,
+            slab=tuple(1 if c == "c" else -1 for c in gt.axes),
+            masks=[mask[target.roi], distance_mask],
+            moving_counts=None
+            if moving_class_counts is None
+            else moving_class_counts[-self.classes :],
+        )
+
+        weights = np.concatenate((one_hot_weights, distance_weights))
+        moving_class_counts = np.concatenate(
+            (one_hot_moving_class_counts, distance_moving_class_counts)
+        )
+        return (
+            NumpyArray.from_np_array(
+                weights,
+                gt.roi,
+                gt.voxel_size,
+                gt.axes,
+            ),
+            moving_class_counts,
+        )
+
+    @property
+    def output_array_type(self):
+        # technically this is a probability array + distance array, but it is only ever referenced for interpolatability (which is true for both) (TODO)
+        return ProbabilityArray(self.embedding_dims)
+
+    def create_distance_mask(
+        self,
+        distances: np.ndarray,
+        mask: np.ndarray,
+        voxel_size: Coordinate,
+        normalize=None,
+        normalize_args=None,
+    ):
+        mask_output = mask.copy()
+        for i, (channel_distance, channel_mask) in enumerate(zip(distances, mask)):
+            tmp = np.zeros(
+                np.array(channel_mask.shape) + np.array((2,) * channel_mask.ndim),
+                dtype=channel_mask.dtype,
+            )
+            slices = tmp.ndim * (slice(1, -1),)
+            tmp[slices] = channel_mask
+            boundary_distance = distance_transform_edt(
+                tmp,
+                sampling=voxel_size,
+            )
+            if self.epsilon is None:
+                add = 0
+            else:
+                add = self.epsilon
+            boundary_distance = self.__normalize(
+                boundary_distance[slices], normalize, normalize_args
+            )
+
+            channel_mask_output = mask_output[i]
+            logging.debug(
+                "Total number of masked in voxels before distance masking {0:}".format(
+                    np.sum(channel_mask_output)
+                )
+            )
+            channel_mask_output[
+                np.logical_and(
+                    np.clip(abs(channel_distance) + add, 0, self.threshold)
+                    >= boundary_distance,
+                    channel_distance >= 0,
+                )
+            ] = 0
+            logging.debug(
+                "Total number of masked in voxels after postive distance masking {0:}".format(
+                    np.sum(channel_mask_output)
+                )
+            )
+            channel_mask_output[
+                np.logical_and(
+                    np.clip(abs(channel_distance) + add, 0, self.threshold)
+                    >= boundary_distance,
+                    channel_distance <= 0,
+                )
+            ] = 0
+            logging.debug(
+                "Total number of masked in voxels after negative distance masking {0:}".format(
+                    np.sum(channel_mask_output)
+                )
+            )
+        return mask_output
+
+    def process(
+        self,
+        labels: np.ndarray,
+        voxel_size: Coordinate,
+        normalize=None,
+        normalize_args=None,
+    ):
+        all_distances = np.zeros(labels.shape, dtype=np.float32) - 1
+        for ii, channel in enumerate(labels):
+            boundaries = self.__find_boundaries(channel)
+
+            # mark boundaries with 0 (not 1)
+            boundaries = 1.0 - boundaries
+
+            if np.sum(boundaries == 0) == 0:
+                max_distance = min(
+                    dim * vs / 2 for dim, vs in zip(channel.shape, voxel_size)
+                )
+                if np.sum(channel) == 0:
+                    distances = -np.ones(channel.shape, dtype=np.float32) * max_distance
+                else:
+                    distances = np.ones(channel.shape, dtype=np.float32) * max_distance
+            else:
+                # get distances (voxel_size/2 because image is doubled)
+                distances = distance_transform_edt(
+                    boundaries, sampling=tuple(float(v) / 2 for v in voxel_size)
+                )
+                distances = distances.astype(np.float32)
+
+                # restore original shape
+                downsample = (slice(None, None, 2),) * len(voxel_size)
+                distances = distances[downsample]
+
+                # todo: inverted distance
+                distances[channel == 0] = -distances[channel == 0]
+
+            if normalize is not None:
+                distances = self.__normalize(distances, normalize, normalize_args)
+
+            all_distances[ii] = distances
+
+        return np.concatenate((labels, all_distances))
+
+    def __find_boundaries(self, labels):
+        # labels: 1 1 1 1 0 0 2 2 2 2 3 3       n
+        # shift :   1 1 1 1 0 0 2 2 2 2 3       n - 1
+        # diff  :   0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0       n - 1
+        # bound.: 00000001000100000001000      2n - 1
+
+        logger.debug("computing boundaries for %s", labels.shape)
+
+        dims = len(labels.shape)
+        in_shape = labels.shape
+        out_shape = tuple(2 * s - 1 for s in in_shape)
+
+        boundaries = np.zeros(out_shape, dtype=bool)
+
+        logger.debug("boundaries shape is %s", boundaries.shape)
+
+        for d in range(dims):
+            logger.debug("processing dimension %d", d)
+
+            shift_p = [slice(None)] * dims
+            shift_p[d] = slice(1, in_shape[d])
+
+            shift_n = [slice(None)] * dims
+            shift_n[d] = slice(0, in_shape[d] - 1)
+
+            diff = (labels[tuple(shift_p)] - labels[tuple(shift_n)]) != 0
+
+            logger.debug("diff shape is %s", diff.shape)
+
+            target = [slice(None, None, 2)] * dims
+            target[d] = slice(1, out_shape[d], 2)
+
+            logger.debug("target slices are %s", target)
+
+            boundaries[tuple(target)] = diff
+
+        return boundaries
+
+    def __normalize(self, distances, norm, normalize_args):
+        if norm == "tanh":
+            scale = normalize_args
+            return np.tanh(distances / scale)
+        else:
+            raise ValueError("Only tanh is supported for normalization")
+
+    def gt_region_for_roi(self, target_spec):
+        if self.mask_distances:
+            gt_spec = target_spec.copy()
+            gt_spec.roi = gt_spec.roi.grow(
+                Coordinate((self.max_distance,) * gt_spec.voxel_size.dims),
+                Coordinate((self.max_distance,) * gt_spec.voxel_size.dims),
+            ).snap_to_grid(gt_spec.voxel_size, mode="shrink")
+        else:
+            gt_spec = target_spec.copy()
+        return gt_spec
+
+    def padding(self, gt_voxel_size: Coordinate) -> Coordinate:
+        return Coordinate((self.max_distance,) * gt_voxel_size.dims)